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Protests against internet blockings: detentions and other forms of pressure: Human rights news from Russia, court updates & analysis | 23 related articles | OVD-Info
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01.04.2026
16:40 Krasnodar KraiThe Adler District Court in Sochi fined Viktoria Krivoshchapova, a moderator of the “Alyi Lebed” (“Scarlet Swan”) chat, 15,000 roubles (approximately US$160) under the article on organising an unauthorised rally (Part 2, Article 20.2 of the Administrative Offences Code). The court’s decision was reported by the 7×7 news outlet.
The decision was issued on 27 March, two days before rallies against internet blocks were planned in different cities across Russia.
Krivoshchapova was accused of encouraging chat members to join a protest in Moscow against the blocking of Telegram.
“At the same time, notification of the public event was not filed in accordance with the established procedure, and the rally itself was planned to be held at Bolotnaya Square without approval from the public authorities,” the court decision said.
The document shows that Krivoshchapova attended the hearing without legal representation. She pleaded guilty.
14:27 Sverdlovsk OblastOn 29 March in Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals, police detained three people at 1905 Square, reports Mediazona. Two days earlier, a newly created Telegram channel called “The Scarlet Swan Yekaterinburg” claimed that the city authorities had approved a rally at this square against the blocking of Telegram, although there was no official information about the event.
Police detained a 17-year-old college student, his 18-year-old acquaintance, and their friend. On 29 March, they were out walking in the city centre when they noticed a security officer taking their photograph. According to the teenagers, they did not know a rally had been announced at 1905 Square and were not intending to participate.
“We stood there for about three minutes. We were already about to leave to go about our business. But at around 15:25, officers approached us and took us aside. We answered all their questions and showed our passports. We were asked if we knew about the rally, but we said we knew nothing about it. We were not rude and did not provoke them,” the student said.
The police asked them to unlock their phones and show their photo gallery. The student said he had forgotten his phone code. After this, he was struck on the leg, stomach and face, and also received “a very powerful slap in the face.” When he tried to break free, his t-shirt and bag were torn.
He and his friend were detained, but their 18-year-old companion managed to escape. Those detained were taken to Police Department No. 9. The girl was soon released together with a social worker. No charge sheet was drawn up against her, but security officers did examine her phone.
The 17-year-old student was charged with disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Offences Code). The official report claimed the teenagers had been filming the security officers and said they were taking part in the rally. The police accused the student of failing to show his passport and refusing to hand over his phone—which, in their view, constituted disobedience.
According to the student, at the police station he eventually did unlock his phone. One of the security officers tried to find “something political.” After this, the detainee was held for 48 hours at a temporary detention centre for minors.
On 31 March, the Verkh-Isetsky District Court rejected a police request to keep the student at the centre for a further 30 days. The police had claimed this was necessary in order to transfer him to his parents, who live in another region.
The 18-year-old friend who had managed to evade police went to the station himself on 30 March to collect his passport. He reported being beaten by security officers: “One blow to the chest, a couple of times on the back, grabbed by the neck and swung around the room, maybe hit somewhere else too, but I don’t remember.” The channel “Libertarianism in the Urals” writes that he was beaten by officers from the Centre “E.” They threatened to “smash [his] face in” and called him a “poodle.”
“The ‘defenders against extremism’ gave as their reason for the beatings and threats their hurt feelings after unlawfully reading Mikhail’s private messages, where he commented on his own detention,” the channel reports.
A disobedience protocol was also drawn up against the 18-year-old detainee. He was fined two thousand roubles (approx. US$22).
At this time, OVD-Info is aware of 27 people detained in various Russian cities at venues where rallies against blockings have taken place or were planned.
31.03.2026
15:45 MoscowThe Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow has sentenced Potyomka Simagin to 15 days' detention. Their lawyer from OVD-Info, Aleksey Pinchuk, reported this (Simagin uses they/them pronouns).
Simagin was detained at Bolotnaya Square on 29 March. The police issued them with a report for petty hooliganism. Simagin was accused of waving their arms, shouting insults and generally displaying “antisocial behaviour.”
“[I] was just sitting on a bench, staff approached and thought I was filming. Apparently, something didn’t sit well with them. They asked for documents—I showed them, but didn’t hand them over. In the end they took me away after a search, and I still haven’t gotten my passport back,” reports SOTAvision, quoting Simagin’s account of the arrest.
15:05 Saint PetersburgOVD-Info has learned of a third person detained in St Petersburg on 29 March.
A young person reported that they were detained near Gostiny Dvor. They noted that they were not chanting anything and did not have any posters.
The detainee was taken to Police Station No. 78. There, an offence report was drawn up against them under the demonstration-related article (Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences). On 30 March, at around 22:00, they were released from the station. The court has not yet reviewed their case.
30.03.2026
18:01 MoscowMoscow courts have arrested six more people detained at Bolotnaya Square.
The Meshchansky District Court sentenced Ekaterina Wagner to 15 days of administrative arrest for disobeying police orders (Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Administrative Offences Code), reports “Slovo Zashchite.” She has also been issued a protocol for violating the rules of holding a public event (Part 5 of Article 20.2), which has not yet been reviewed.
“Ekaterina does not consider herself to be part of any mass gathering; she believes she did not break the law. She was not disturbing anyone, nor did she take part in any unauthorised action. She was simply out for a walk with her nephews,” said lawyer Nataliya Tikhonova.
The day before, Ekaterina’s nephew said that the security forces beat him and forced him to testify against his aunt.
As reported by “Mediazona,” the same court issued 15 days of arrest each to Yaroslav Polyakov, Mikael Markaryan, and a third detainee who asked to remain anonymous, under the same disobedience article.
The Zamoskvoretsky District Court arrested two more people for petty hooliganism (Article 20.1). Aleksandr Shelestov received 15 days, and the second detainee—a woman—received 10 days.
The woman said she was detained while standing by a bench at Bolotnaya Square. A police officer demanded her passport. After she refused, the woman was taken to a police van.
Shelestov said he was sitting by the fountain when a police officer approached him and said he could not stay there. After Shelestov moved to a lamppost as instructed, another officer told him again to move, and he complied. After that, security personnel started calling him a protest coordinator and took his phone. Although they found nothing of interest on the device, Shelestov was still detained.
OVD-Info had not previously been aware of the detention of Shelestov, Polyakov and Markaryan—the total number of people detained in Moscow has now increased to 17.
The Zamoskvoretsky Court also returned to the police the protocol on petty hooliganism drawn up against Potemki Simagin. They will spend another day at “Alekseevskiy” police station (Simagin uses “they/them” pronouns), OVD-Info lawyer Aleksey Pinchuk said. The lawyer asked the court to summon the prosecutor, OMON officers, and police officers who made the arrest, as well as lawyer Oskar Cherdzhiev, who was not allowed to see Simagin yesterday. He also pointed out mistakes and discrepancies in the case file.
16:25 MoscowThe Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow sentenced Vladislav Azarochkin to 15 days in detention. He was detained on 29 March at Bolotnaya Square and later reported being beaten by law enforcement, according to SOTAvision.
He was found guilty of petty hooliganism (part 1, article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences).
According to Azarochkin, he was detained after witnessing someone else being detained and offering to act as a witness for the police:
“I’m walking by the centre, take out a cigarette, start smoking, see lots of police officers, see someone being led off, their belongings thrown on the pavement. I offered to act as a witness if it was a search. Then five officers surrounded me. ‘What are you smoking? ’ they asked. I apologised, put out the cigarette. They said I was littering, that it was article 19.3, twisted my arms, no one identified themselves even though I asked. They took me to a police van, there they took a person’s phone and searched through it. Then a police officer grabbed me by the throat and began to choke me. He mocked me with words. Then he said he would ‘play the leather flute’ with me, holding me by the zip, clearly threatening rape.”
After that, Azarochkin was beaten. In court, he said it was still painful for him to stand and he was covered in bruises. According to the detainee, one of the officers told him: “I hate people like you.”
Soon after, Azarochkin’s condition worsened and an ambulance was called for him. He was then taken to hospital, where his injuries were documented. However, the medical records were not attached to the case file.
The detainee spent the night at the Yakimanka police station. Police did not allow volunteers to give him water or hygiene items, and the ventilation in his cell was turned off.
As SOTAvision reports, originally the police were going to charge Azarochkin with violating the smoking ban. But, claims the detainee, that document “was scrunched up and thrown away after a call from above.”
In court, lawyer Oskar Cherdzhiev requested that footage from police body cameras be seized and that the officers be summoned for questioning. Judge Yulia Varankina denied his requests.
In court, Azarochkin also told his defence lawyer that the police beat him both at the station and again this morning. He felt unwell due to the stuffy conditions in the cell, fell down, and then asked for an ambulance to be called. According to Azarochkin, after that, the police kicked him. He noted that corridor cameras at the station might have recorded this.
16:47 After the court session, Azarochkin called his girlfriend and said he had been beaten in the police van. SOTAvision reports this.
29.03.2026
21:31 MoscowVladislav Azarochkin, who was detained at Bolotnaya Square, told OVD-Info that he was beaten at the Yakimanka police station.
According to him, several officers beat him, one of whom was in plain clothes. They threatened him with torture and sexual violence.
Azarochkin is to be kept at the police station overnight. The police told him that reports would be filed against him for disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Offences Code) and for petty hooliganism (Article 20.1 of the Administrative Offences Code).
Previously, Azarochkin’s detention had not been reported. According to the latest information, at least 13 people were detained in Moscow in one day.
23:36 Azarochkin is being kept at the police station overnight, OVD-Info was informed by lawyer Oskar Cherdzhiev, who arrived at the Yakimanka police station.
A report on petty hooliganism is to be filed against the detainee.
The lawyer also found another person who was detained at Bolotnaya Square in this station. Therefore, according to OVD-Info’s records, a total of 14 people were detained in Moscow on 29 March.
18:40 Saint Petersburg“Bumaga” reports a second detention in St Petersburg.
Police officers detained a man on the embankment near Lenin Square.
Earlier, law enforcement officers had threatened to detain those gathered at Lenin Square to take part in a protest against blockings, if they did not leave.
18:12 MoscowThree more people were detained in Bolotnaya Square—Aleksandr Kuzmin, Potyomka Simagin, and a minor. The detainees themselves told OVD-Info about this.
They were taken to the “Alekseevsky” police station.
Thus, OVD-Info knows that at least 12 people were detained in Bolotnaya Square during the day.
22:49 Aleksandr Kuzmin has been released from the “Alekseevsky” police station, he told OVD-Info himself.
A report was drawn up against him for violating the procedure for holding a public event (Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code). According to the man, the police did not use violence against the detainees.
Kuzmin said that they also planned to release the minor from the station, whose father had come to collect him.
Simagin, however, was kept at the station overnight—law enforcement said they intended to draw up a report under the protest-related article.
The detainees’ lawyer, Oskar Cherdzhiev, was not allowed in to see them.
17:48 Voronezh OblastActivist Nikita Nesmeyanov was detained in the centre of Voronezh, a city in south-western Russia, during a solo picket against internet blocks, reports the Civil Defence Node Telegram channel.
He held a picket with a libertarian flag and a poster reading: “Stop slowing us down. Stop blocking us. For a free internet!!! Against bans. Against censorship!!!”
21:05 Nesmeyanov has been released from police station No. 6, he himself told OVD-Info. Police took a statement from the activist, but did not draw up an offence report.