‘Orwell penned a dystopia, not an instruction manual’: Russian activist detained for protesting fresh censorship bill

A Russian activist has been detained in Moscow while protesting a potential new law introducing fines for looking up banned content online, independent news outlet RusNews has reported.

Dmitry Kisiev, the campaign manager of former presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin, went to the State Duma building in central Moscow on Tuesday morning, where he held up a banner which read “For a Russia without censorship. Orwell penned a dystopia, not an instruction manual”, and was promptly detained by security forces.

Nadezhdin, who went to the Duma with Kisiev but was not detained, said Kisiev had been taken to the police station in the capital’s Tverskoy district, with RusNews adding that its correspondents Yulia Petrova and Konstantin Zharov, who filmed the picket, had also been detained.

Kisiev has been charged with violating the procedure for holding a public event, according to Shtab Kandidatov, Nadezhdin’s former campaign headquarters. Petrova and Zharov have since been released, but were also charged with violating the procedure for holding a public event. Kommersant correspondent Bozhena Ivanova, who was detained at the protest, remains in the police station.

On Tuesday, the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, approved in their third reading amendments to an existing law which would introduce fines of up to 5,000 rubles (€55) for those searching for or accessing “extremist” material online.

Assuming the amendments are rubber-stamped by the Senate and signed into law by Vladimir Putin, this will mark the first time that there will be legal repercussions for anyone viewing prohibited content in Russia, with the changes due to come into force on 1 September.

Kisiev worked as a campaign strategist for Nadezhdin who was attempting to stand as a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. His candidacy was rejected on a technicality as he gained traction amongst opposition-minded Russians.

Earlier this month, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) notified Kisiev that he was being stripped of his Russian citizenship, which he had been granted in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukrainian Crimea. He said he would appeal the decision.