Wartime Repressions Report. June 2023

Repression at the legislative level

This month, the State Duma passed, in the first reading, three bills that provide for administrative and criminal liability for «involvement» in the activities of a foreign or international non-governmental organisation not included in a special registry, and two bills that provide for liability for failing to rectify violations of the law on «foreign agents».

Another law has been passed and signed as well, the one extending the administrative article on the dissemination of extremist material. From now on, the materials can be recognized as extremist not only if they are directly on the Ministry of Justice’s list but also if they are «categorized as such by federal laws». For example, it can be a photo of Hitler or any anti-government symbol.

Criminal cases

Ruslar Ushakov, who is being prosecuted under four Criminal Code articles at once because of messages about the war in Ukraine in his telegram channel «The Real Crime», stated at the hearing of his case that he had been electrocuted during the arrest.

Maria Ponomarenko, a journalist charged with a case of «fakes», is under pressure in the colony — an employee has prohibited other convicts from helping Maria to carry a mattress when the woman could not do it alone because of acute back pain and refused to call a doctor. Later, this same employee searched Ponomarenko’s personal belongings and emptied all the envelopes with letters. A politician, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has been sentenced to 25 years in the colony, is not receiving some letters from his friends and family.

Bogdan Ziza, a Crimean artist and actionist, went on a hunger strike a day before his sentence was announced. He was sentenced to 15 years of detention. Ivan Kudryashov, a locksmith and activist from Tver, sentenced to 6 years of detention for setting fire to a military recruiting office, had gone on a hunger strike until the sentence was announced because he was refused vegetarian food accommodation, his complaints have not been passed to the prosecutor’s office and the governor of the pre-trial detention centre refused to meet with him.

The defenders of OVD-Info have helped 60 individuals involved in 49 criminal anti-war processes in 33 cities over the past month. 44 attorneys have assisted the defendants. During the last month, our defenders have been involved in two searches and 11 questionings.

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Administrative cases

On June 9, the Savelovsky District Court of Moscow fined Anna Zhiltsova, a government official of Rosaviation, 100 thousand rubles under the article on discrediting the army (part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) for an anti-war poster on the wall of her office. A pensioner from Ugra was fined under an article on discrediting the army for a message on Viber following a denunciation by a group chat participant.

In April of this year, lawyers from OVD-Info and other human rights organizations filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court for declaring unconstitutional and revoking the article on discrediting the Russian army (Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). The lawyers stressed that the article violates the constitutional rights to freedom of expression, conscience, assembly, and is discriminatory. In June, the Constitutional Court replied that the defence of the fatherland is a citizen’s duty, and criticism of the armed forces is «assistance to the forces opposing the Russian Federation.»

Human rights defenders from OVD-Info have participated in 74 administrative anti-war cases in courts this month and have helped 10 detainees. For example, a lawyer cooperating with us went to help a young man detained at Domodedovo airport upon arrival in Russia for his anti-war speeches. Our defenders also helped Dmitry Golovlev, who was held in a special detention centre because of the launch of white-blue-white balloons.

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Extra-judicial pressure

As of this month, 33 new cases have come to light.

Musicians were prohibited from performing songs by «foreign agents» at the street music festival in Ryazan. Also, this month has seen the cancellation of concerts of such bands as Splean, Animal Jazz, Zveri, Anacondaz and Diana Arbenina.

Censorship and pressure in education are among the most commonly used methods of extrajudicial persecution. This month alone, we became aware of the following cases. Sergey Chernyshov, a historian, has resigned from all his administrative positions in «Novocolledge» and «Novoshkola», which he founded in Novosibirsk. The college has faced claims for refusing to host the «Important Conversations», and Chernyshov himself was qualified as a foreign agent. Yulia Ruzhina, a college teacher from Sevastopol, was fired after leaving comments on Telegram. At Saint Petersburg State University, associate professor Mikhail Belousov was fired after being accused by pro-war activists of using the word «ruscism». Later, eight students who were close to him and criticized military activities, were dismissed. Igor Petukhov, the head of Volga Region State University of Technology (PGTU), has introduced amendments to the internal code of conduct: from now on, the students are not allowed to promote «non-traditional sexual relationships or preferences» and discredit the army.

Transwoman Elis Femina, who was put under arrest and fined for shouting «Glory to Ukraine!», reported being abused by law enforcement officers and fired from her job.

A church court has demanded a public confession from a priest who preached an anti-war sermon. He has been prohibited from serving as a priest until he confesses, and in case he refuses, he is promised to be defrocked.

“Foreign agents” and  “undesirable organizations”

This month, the authorities issued reports on the absence of the «foreign agent» marking for at least 11 people, including OVD-Info co-founders and two organizations, Transparency and Nasiliyu.net. Six more people were fined for the same violation in the same month. Among them is the first «foreign agent» lawmaker, Viktor Vorobyov.

On June 15, the Ministry of Justice published an annual report for 2022, which revealed that by the end of 2022, the closed registry containing 861 names of people «affiliated» with «foreign agents». In 2022, at least 78 people and 4 organizations were included in the registries for «speaking up against the Special Military Operation».

The following organizations were declared «undesirable»: Transformation Center Church International, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Law Sofia Foundation (a Bulgarian fund that, according to the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, is connected to the international human rights group Agora).

The police in Saint Petersburg drew up a report against journalist Sergey Kagermazov for participating in «undesirable» organization activities based on five shared posts of Meduza media on VK. Also, this month revealed that activist Vitaliy Votanovskiy was fined 10,000 rubles (US$120) for sharing links to Meduza and Free Idel-Ural Media publications.

Important Stories Media investigator Mariya Zholobova was fined under the article about «undesirable» organizations for sending an enquiry to a Russian defence enterprise in November 2022.

Blocking and censorship

This month, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media blocked OVD-Info websites ovd.legal and ovd.news. Among the other blocked websites are several Ukrainian projects, the journalist platform Medium and the «Pervym reysom» (First flight) project.

The messengers Telegram and Viber were fined five million rubles for refusing to delete information about the war.

The propaganda outlet RIA Novosti has published threats to the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal from «a well-informed source». «The source» is threatening consequences for the detained journalist Evan Gershkovich accused of espionage activities if the newspaper «continues to publish disinformation about Russia».

Pressure on Civil Society

On May 30, the Council of the Moscow Bar Association disbarred the lawyer Ilya Novikov because of his interview with the Youtube channel Popularnaya Politika (Popular politics), where he made his position against the war and Putin clear.

The Leninsky district court of Yekaterinburg has fined the local branch of Memorial 300 thousand rubles and its chairperson Aleksey Mosin 100 thousand rubles for discrediting the Russian army. The reason for the prosecution of the organization is two publications on the website ekmemorial.org. This website does not belong to the Memorial’s Yekaterinburg branch, and Mosin does not have any access to it.

A criminal case has been initiated against Yevgeniy Zateyev and Valentin Khoroshenin, both former activists of the Vesna movement; Vasiliy Neustroyev, a member of the St. Petersburg regional council of the Yabloko party and a member of the party’s territorial election committee; Yan Ksenzhepolskiy, an activist from Tver; and activists Pavel Sinelnikov and Anna Arkhipova. They are accused of several charges. The criminal case is built on publications on the social media of the Vesna movement from 2022. Sinelnikov is not connected to the movement at all, Arkhipova and Neustroyev left the movement more than a year ago. All the defendants have been arrested.

Links to other OVD-Info data and reports

• SWartime repression reports. May 2023, April 2023, March 2023, February 2023, January 2023, December 2022, October 2022, September 2022, August 2022, July 2022, June 2022
• Report in Russian «No war. How the Russian authorities are fighting anti-war protests.»
• Report in Ukrainian «No war. How the Russian authorities are fighting anti-war protests.»
• Guide «The anti-war case.»
• The input of information in reply to the call for submissions: Challenges to freedom of opinion and expression in times of conflicts and disturbances.
• The Report on Civil Rights and Freedoms of Children
• Report «Blocking Internet resources as a tool of political censorship.»
• Project on the law on «foreign agents» — «Inoteka».
• Report «How the authorities use cameras and facial recognition against protesters.»
• Reports of OVD-Info and other organizations on the compliance of the Russian Federation with its international obligations in the field of human rights.
• Information on the human rights situation in Russia for the OSCE Moscow Mechanism.

Main photo: Crimean artist Bogdan Ziza, sentenced to 15 years in the «anti-war case» / Photo from Bogdan Ziza’s social networks