The Kirovsky District Court of St. Petersburg extended until January 15, 2023 the arrest of Peaceful Resistance activist Olga Smirnova, accused of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army (Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by SOTAvision. The judge said that there were no grounds for changing the preventive measure, since Smirnova is accused of committing a serious crime, and was also previously brought to administrative responsibility.

There was information about politically motivated persecution. The hero of the news, who previously gave OVD-Info consent to the publication of what happened, asked to delete his story for security reasons. We, as a human rights project, cannot ignore such requests, so we delete the text of the news.

A case was opened against a resident of Rostov-on-Don, Maxim Rachkov, under the article on “fake news” about the Russian army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial". According to the project, the reason for the case was a publication on VKontakte - a video recording of the brutal dispersal by the Russian military of a peaceful Ukrainian rally in Kherson. The case against the man was opened back in April.

On July 24, Roskomnadzor included the website of the Dron Media publication in the list of resources to which access is limited in Russia. A representative of the publication reported this to OVD-Info. Journalists did not receive notification from the department about the blocking. Also, the social network VKontakte, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office, blocked access to the Drone Media community. The publication had only been open for a month before it was blocked.

The Pravoberezhny District Court of Lipetsk awarded compensation to Tatyana Platonova, who was detained in December 2021 due to a gathering on the central square in connection with the hearing of the bill on QR codes. This was told by the defender from OVD-Info Vladimir Bilienko. The court recognized Platonova's detention as illegal and awarded 25,000 rubles in compensation for physical harm and 8,000 for moral damages.

The Lyublinsky District Court of Moscow extended the arrest of ex-photographer of Navalny's headquarters Alexander Strukov until August 26. The First Department reports this in its telegram channel. ‎ The accused will remain in Moscow pre-trial detention center-7 "Kapotnya". The case against Strukov was initiated under articles on public calls for terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and inciting hatred on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code).

The Presnensky District Court of Moscow sentenced local resident Daniil Tikhomirov, who was driving a car with an anti-war flag, to one year and six months in a general regime colony. This was reported by OVD-Info lawyer Mikhail Biryukov, who represents the interests of the defendant. Tikhomirov was found guilty of using violence not dangerous to life or health against a police officer (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code).

Human rights activist Andrey Ivashev from Syktyvkar said that he was being held in harsh conditions in SIZO-1 of the Komi Republic (Verkhniy Chov village). About this writes "7 × 7 - Horizontal Russia" with reference to the page of the local municipal deputy Sergei Belikov.

Police detained politician Leonid Gozman at the Frunzenskaya metro station in Moscow. Lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told OVD-Info about this. Gozman and Biryukov were in the metro when the politician was detained using the Sphere facial recognition system. The police did not provide reasons for Gozman’s detention; he is now being taken to the 1st police department on the Moscow metro.

In the Leninsky District Court of Saransk, the prosecution requested real sentences for Jehovah's Witnesses Vladimir Atryakhin, Georgy and Elena Nikulin, Alexander Shevchuk, Denis Antonov and Alexander Korolev. Information about this appeared on the website “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia”.

In Rybinsk (Yaroslavl region) on July 13, searches were carried out in 16 houses of Jehovah's Witnesses. Three families were also searched at their dachas. This is reported by a portal covering the persecution of believers in Russia. According to the portal, Jehovah's Witnesses in Rybinsk survived many hours of searches and interrogations, during which some of the believers faced threats from security forces.

The Isakogorsky District Court of Arkhangelsk dismissed the criminal case against human rights activist Sergei Mokhnatkin in connection with the latter’s death. This is reported by SOTA. We are talking about a case under articles of contempt of court (Part 1 of Article 297 of the Criminal Code) and the use of violence against an employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service (Part 2 of Article 321 of the Criminal Code), which was initiated in 2018. Mokhnatkin died in May 2020 at the age of 66.

The Zaeltsovsky District Court of Novosibirsk fined activist Pavel Lukin one thousand rubles under the article on propaganda of Nazi symbols (Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code) due to several publications and reposts on VKontakte. Lukin himself told OVD-Info about this.

Independent deputy of the Novosibirsk City Council Helga Pirogova, against whom on July 22 a case was opened for disseminating “fakes” about the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), left Russia. Mediazona talks about this with reference to Pirogova herself.

In Moscow, the security forces detained a local resident Alexei, who opposed the development of the Pokrovskoye-Streshnevo park. This was reported to OVD-Info by a friend of the detainee. The activist was taken to the Pokrovskoe-Streshnevo police station and left overnight until the trial. He is charged with petty hooliganism (Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).