The investigation has demanded that human rights activist and former political prisoner Ivan Astashin be arrested in absentia in a case of justifying terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). Mediazona drew attention to the case file .
In December 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs added Astashin to the wanted list, but at that time the article under which the human rights activist was being prosecuted was not known.
In April of this year, the Ministry of Justice added Astashin to the register of "foreign agents" because the man "opposed the special military operation in Ukraine. Spread false information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation, as well as the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Called for participation in uncoordinated rallies and pickets. Participated in the creation and dissemination to an unlimited number of people of messages and materials of foreign agents, as well as organizations whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation."
Ivan Astashin was a defendant in the " ABTO case", for which he served 9 years and 9 months of imprisonment. At the end of his term, he was sentenced to eight years of administrative supervision. After his release, he was required to report to the police department twice a month and was prohibited from being anywhere other than his place of residence between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
At the end of February 2022, Ivan Astashin was detained at an anti-war rally in Moscow. He was later fined 10 thousand rubles under the article on violating the rules for participating in a public event (Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Immediately after the trial, a protocol was drawn up against the former political prisoner under the article on violating administrative supervision (Article 19.24 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). In August 2022, it became known that the man had left Russia.
On May 24, the court ruled in absentia to arrest Astashin, as follows from the card update on the website.
The human rights activist himself said that his lawyer had previously sent a request to law enforcement agencies to obtain information about the criminal case, but the lawyer never received a response. However, according to Astashin, the reason for initiating the case was a post about the explosion of Zakhar Prilepin's car, published on May 6 last year.
"Another instigator of war and its direct participant received a well-deserved bomb - Zakhar Prilepin's car exploded in Nizhny Novgorod. They write that the "activist" was seriously wounded.
Let me remind you of the words of the “writer” himself (as many media outlets still call Prilepin), spoken in 2019 in an interview with Alexey Pivovarov: “I commanded a combat unit that killed people. In large numbers,” Astashin wrote then.
“Everything has been clear with the Russian state for a long time: it terrorizes entire nations and does not react to calls for mass murder and torture of its opponents, but when someone even hints at the deserved punishment of real murderers and international criminals, it immediately initiates cases of justification of terrorism,” he commented on the news of his arrest in absentia.
- The "ABTO case" is a criminal case about a series of arsons that the FSB classified as terrorist activity. Ten young people were involved in the case. Ivan Astashin and his associates threw a bottle with a Molotov cocktail at the FSB department for the South-West District of Moscow in 2009. The case opened in connection with this incident was combined with the case of arsons of migrants' property and police departments, in which Astashin did not participate. The investigation called him the leader of the "Autonomous Combat Terrorist Organization", the defendants in the case denied that such an organization actually existed. In 2012, Astashin was sentenced to 13 years in a maximum security penal colony. Later, the term was reduced to 9 years and 9 months.