On May 2, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow fined the ex-coordinator of Navalny’s Volgograd headquarters, Evgeny Kochegin, 30 thousand rubles under the article on the absence of “foreign agent” markings (Part 4 of Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code). This was reported by Kavkaz.realii; the case file is available on the court’s website.
The reason was the lack of labeling in the activist’s personal Telegram channel. The man was added to the register of “foreign agents” in September 2023.
Now Kochegin heads the regional anti-war movement “Dozor” and lives outside of Russia. In May 2022, he was arrested in absentia as a suspect in the case of “fake news” about the army (clause “d”, part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), and in December of the same year hewas put on the wanted list. The reason for the criminal prosecution of the man was a publication on his Telegram channel that Vladimir Putin wants to seize Ukraine and install a puppet government there.
- In the fall of 2021, a criminal case was opened against Kochegin for evading alternative service (Part 2 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code).
- On June 9, 2021, the Moscow City Court recognized the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the Foundation for the Protection of Citizens' Rights (FZPG) and the headquarters of Alexei Navalny as “extremist organizations.” An appeals court later upheld this decision. After this, supporters of the opposition politician began to leave Russia en masse.
- In the fall of 2021, OVD-Info launched the Inoteka project. We explore the practice of applying laws on “foreign agents”, talk about their impact on civil society and specific people, initiate discussions with experts and suggest ways of possible changes. In December 2021, together with the Center for the Protection of Media Rights, we began to provide legal support to people and organizations that were included in the registers of “foreign agents.”