Three organizers of the Scarlet Swan movement were arrested

The formal reason for the arrest was “refusal to present documents” to police officers.

Updated (14:25) : Today the court also arrested student Alexandra Meshcheryakova for 15 days “for participating in an unauthorized event against Internet blocking.” She was also the organizer of the “Scarlet Swan” movement and was listed in the notice of a rally on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow (the document is available to “Vestka”). The news has been updated with clarifications.

Students Nikita Ulanov and Maxim Kheifets, arrested for 15 days because of a “rally against Internet blocking on Bolotnaya Square,” turned out to be members of the Scarlet Swan community. This was confirmed to Vorstka by several representatives of the movement.

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The court ruling does not mention whether those arrested were involved in organizing a rally against Internet blocking.

Kheifetz is listed as one of the organizers in the notice of a rally in Moscow on Sakharov Avenue (available to VERSTKA). Judging by the leaks, he is 18 years old and recently changed his last name. “Layout” found the full namesake in the lists of those admitted to the Faculty of Economics of MIIT, but in the court materials he is named as a student at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Ulanov is a Scarlet Swan volunteer, as “Verstka” was informed about during the movement. According to leaks, he is believed to be 20 years old.

The press service of the Moscow courts claimed that Ulanov and Kheifetz were arrested under the article of disobedience to the police “for participating in an unauthorized event against Internet blocking on Bolotnaya Square.”

However, the court ruling itself in Ulanov’s case, which was discovered by Vestka, indicates another reason - “refusal to present documents” to police officers. The same is said in the court's ruling in the Heifetz case. “He behaved aggressively, waving his arms,” the document notes. There is no mention of both of them being involved in organizing the rally.

Organizers of the movement spoke about pressure from security forces and external surveillance

Stepan Razin, who submitted a notice to hold a rally on Bolotnaya Square, is now outside Russia. He told Vorstka that on March 23, his mother called him and said that police had arrived at their apartment in the Moscow region.

According to the mother, they did not report any investigative actions, but they downloaded information from Razin’s laptop. At that moment he was returning from work in Moscow. He said that he noticed several police cars in his area, but began to hide in the courtyards. Then, according to Razin, he was able to return to Moscow and leave the country.

Also, the former organizer of the Scarlet Swan, Timofey, was able to leave Russia. He told Vorstka that he noticed signs of external surveillance: a suspicious car had been cruising under the windows of his house for several days.

On the evening of March 26, Scarlet Swan reported that Stepan and Timofey had nothing to do with the movement, although they had previously told Vorstka that they were ready to develop the community from abroad. A representative of the movement, who contacted Vorstka and spoke about the conflict with the organizers who had left, could not confirm his identity.

On March 19, Razin and another organizer of the Scarlet Swan movement, Sofia Chepik, were summoned for “preventive conversations.” Chepik shared with Vorstka that she was first brought to the police, then to the prosecutor’s office. There the girl was convinced that no articles would threaten her. However, she was given a warning (available to VASTKA), which stated that the prosecutor’s office had information about “prepared illegal actions containing signs of extremist activity in connection with the organization of an uncoordinated public event” scheduled for March 29.

During the conversation, Razin was also convinced that if the movement does not call for uncoordinated rallies, the organizers will allegedly not be persecuted, he relayed to “Verstka” the words of law enforcement officers.

The Scarlet Swan movement called on March 29 to take to the streets to protest against Internet blockings

The Scarlet Swan movement became popular thanks to TikTok. There, from March 13-14, videos appeared with calls to take to the streets on March 29 in different cities, in particular in Moscow - on Bolotnaya Square. Against this background, a channel and a chat arose, the organizers and moderators were young people from 14 to 20 years old, Vorstka wrote.

On March 24, “Scarlet Swan” said that they were not approved for rallies in St. Petersburg and Moscow, citing “Covid restrictions.” On March 26, the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that participants in “uncoordinated” rallies on March 27–29 may face administrative or criminal liability, and their participants and organizers “will be detained.”

The organizers also faced pressure from the founder of the “Male State” Vladislav Pozdnyakov and his followers. Explicit photographs of Sofia Chepik were leaked to Pozdnyakov’s closed channel, after which, according to the girl, she was hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic.

The Scarlet Swan wrote that one of the organizers, under pressure, sold his account to Pozdnyakov, and on March 23, the movement team lost control of the channel and chat (the message has now been edited, but Vorstka has screenshots with discussions of the sale). The organizers of “The Scarlet Swan” created a new channel, now there are almost 5 thousand subscribers. Razin told Vorstka that a new chat was not created so as not to endanger its participants.

Illustration: “Layout”