Organizer of the Scarlet Swan movement Sofia Chepik left the Russian Federation

At the border, she was questioned longer than others, but “overall, the departure went smoothly”

One of the organizers of the Scarlet Swan movement, 20-year-old activist Sofia Chepik, left Russia. She told Vorstka about this.

“I feel better than ever. I feel safe, my soul is so good and calm for the first time in a long time. Not scary, not alarming,” Chepik said.

She added that at one of the borders she was questioned longer than the others, but overall the departure went smoothly.

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Chepik started thinking about leaving in early April.

According to Chepik, she began to think about leaving in early April. However, on April 20, a court in Moscow arrested her for 15 days for “violating public order,” the ruling stated that she “sweared in public places” and “insultingly pestered” citizens.

After this, on April 24, the FSB reported on the prevention of a “terrorist act against the leaders of Roskomnadzor.” According to a press release from the security service, seven people were detained in Moscow, Ufa, Novosibirsk and Yaroslavl. Another young man from 2004, “the leader of the group,” was killed during his arrest. Attached to the press release was a video supposedly from an operational shooting; the “First Department” assumed from the voice that Chepik was in it.

The girl was released on May 3 after her arrest and confirmed that she was being filmed for an FSB video. According to Chepik, she was forced to pronounce the text under threats and she “didn’t know what it was about.”

At the end of March, five more organizers of the movement were arrested, human rights activists reported . As Vorstka learned, two more left Russia . At the time of her arrest, Chepik was in a psychiatric clinic after being cyberbullied by the founder of the “Male State” Vladislav Pozdnyakov and his supporters: explicit photographs of the girl were leaked online.

The remaining five participants were released after 15 days of arrest, the movement said. According to activists, security forces seized equipment from one of the organizers, Artyom Neverov, without protocols or acts of seizure. Politician Dmitry Kisiev wrote about this in his Telegram channel.

Scarlet Swan leaders on TikTok called for rallies for free internet

The Scarlet Swan movement became popular thanks to TikTok. There, from March 13-14, videos appeared with calls to go to rallies for free Internet 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.

The authorities refused to coordinate rallies in more than 30 Russian cities. Nevertheless, people came out to protest. OVD-Info wrote about 27 detainees in different cities. In Yekaterinburg, the moderator of the “Scarlet Swan” was fined for a rally article.

“Layout” found on the website of the Vakhitovsky District Court of Kazan a case against another moderator, Mikhail Tolkin. His full namesake, living in Kazan, born in 2007. Mikhail was fined 20 thousand rubles for “violating the procedure for holding a rally.” The court ruling cites his messages in the Scarlet Swan chat (they were later deleted), for example: “Our position is a peaceful protest for digital freedom and the Internet without blocking.”

Photo: Sofia Chepik / Instagram

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