February 2024

A call to OVD-Info hotline or a message to our Telegram bot are the easiest ways to report persecution and get a free consultation. Specialists will advise you on how your situation may develop, and instruct you about your next steps.

• 196 419 users were connected to our Telegram-bot
  We used to count all users when counting bot users, but since February we count only active users — those who haven’t unsubscribed and continue to receive our newsletters.
• our legal instructions were viewed 59 249 times
• we received 2,278 calls on our hotline

In total, our operators and volunteers spoke on the phone for 92 hours, 14 minutes and 40 seconds.

Lawyers of the hotline

• conducted 157 consultations by phone;
• responded to 88 letters received at legal@ovdinfo.org;
• audited 17 appeals received through the generator;
• prepared and submitted 2 cassation appeals.

Legal aid

We provide and coordinate legal assistance in cases related to the restrictions of freedom of peaceful assembly or freedom of speech. Our attorneys visit those detained in police departments, support defendants in Russian administrative and criminal courts, and file complaints with the European Court of Human Rights.

Assistance on cases of administrative offences

In February, our lawyers, jurists, and defenders

• went to the police departments 96 times, where they helped 341 detainees.
• helped 202 people in court sessions on administrative cases.
• managed to terminate, cancel or return at least 6 cases of administrative offence.

Criminal cases

Our lawyers and jurists in February 2024

• were present during 2 searches;
• accompanied clients on 5 interrogations;
• entered into 5 new criminal cases;
• worked on 90 criminal cases against 75 people in 45 cities.

We consider all the charges and criminal cases brought in connection with them to be illegal and politically motivated.

News and media

The authorities that violate human rights prefer to avoid publicity. But as they say, silence in the face of evil is itself evil. We believe that information protects, and that media and social attention can prevent violations and change the whole picture.

We have prepared and released

• 370 express news about political persecution in 75 regions of Russia;
• 8 longreads on political persecution.

What you should pay attention to

• Navalny was murdered. OVD-Info statement
  Alexei Navalny was killed in prison. The Federal Penitentiary Service has reported his death and plans to conduct investigations and determine the cause, something similar was mundanely stated by the Investigative Committee. This is unnecessary, the cause is already known.
• The Dissident Digest — free weekly newsletter in English!
  The Digest is your window into the dark world of the Kremlin’s war on human rights and civil society in Russia. The Dissident Digest informs you through data, news and explainers. The newsletter is by no means all-encompassing but we strive to provide you with a snapshot of most important developments.

If you want to be informed about political repressions in Russia you can subscribe to our Digest, follow us on Twitter and Instagram or visit our website! Everything helps.

Media about us

• Russia’s brutal crackdown on Navalny vigils leads to hundreds of arrests
  Almost 400 people trying to mourn Alexei Navalny at vigils across Russia have been detained with the ‘characteristic cruelty of the Kremlin’, a human rights group has said. OVD-Info’s managing editor Dan Storyev told Metro.co.uk: «As for the wave of repression, it is marked with the characteristic cruelty of the Kremlin».
• How Russia targets its critics abroad in wartime
  The Kremlin has taken increasingly draconian measures to silence dissent at home since launching the full-scale war in Ukraine, it’s also devised new tactics for targeting activists, journalists, and politicians far beyond its borders. For insight into how Moscow’s approach to transnational repression has changed over the last two years, The Naked Pravda turned to journalist and activist Dan Storyev, who serves as the managing editor of OVD-Info’s English-language edition, and Yana Gorokhovskaia, the research director for strategy and design at Freedom House.

Reports, research, and advocacy

At our organisation, we examine emerging problems from various angles, which helps us work out present-day tactical solutions and lay the strategic foundation for future systemic change. The results of our analyses are published as reports, data sets, or special projects.

• Persecution of the anti-war movement report. January 2024
  Twenty-three months ago, Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. Immediately following the anti-war protests in the initial days of the invasion, an unprecedented wave of repression unfolded in Russia. OVD-Info continues to gather and analyse data on the persecution of anti-war expression in Russia and the annexed Republic of Crimea.
• Persecution of the anti-war movement report. Two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. February 2024
  Twenty-four months ago — on the morning of February 24, 2022 — Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory. Along with a new round of aggression against another state, the Russian authorities began repression within their own country. Almost 20 thousand detentions, more than 800 defendants in anti-war cases, as well as regularly appearing laws that contradict common sense and the Constitution. OVD-Info analyzed the main trends in repression against opponents of the war in Russia and on the territory of the annexed Republic of Crimea.
• «According to OVD-Info» newsletter
  At our organisation, we examine emerging problems from various angles, which helps us work out present-day tactical solutions and lay the strategic foundation for future systemic change. The results of our analyses are published as reports, data sets, or special projects. Our research team is very active, and it is difficult to put all of their work into one letter. Therefore, we have a newsletter available in English. You can subscribe to follow our news and publications of upcoming reports and datasets.

How much we collected

Total transfers

• 19,089 donations
• RUB 16,467,332

The figure includes

1384 direct transfers made to OVD-Info clients through the Zaodno platform, totalling RUB 1,207,458.

Money transfers from GlobalGiving were not received in February, but there was sad news.

At the end of January, the international crowdfunding platform GlobalGiving was added to the registry of «undesirable» organizations. On February 21, 2024, they hid our project and stopped accepting donations to OVD-Info and other Russian projects due to increased risks for them. This came as a big surprise for us and our regular donors. All donations transferred to us before February 21 will reach us.

If you have set up a recurring donation through GlobalGiving and have not canceled it, please do so in your GlobalGiving account or contact GlobalGiving directly to request a refund.

We had to quickly reorganize and find another way to accept donations from foreign cards: now, it can be done on our website. If something doesn’t work or works with errors, please let us know. We are collecting bugs and gradually fixing them, and later, we will announce this method to everyone.

Help us using a foreign card

How much we spent

In February, we expended a total of RUB 32,121,020, all of which was funded by your donations and transfers from various sources. Here’s a breakdown of how the funds were used:

• RUB 8,460,840 — legal assistance. Our lawyers and human rights defenders worked tirelessly to provide legal aid to detainees in police departments and courts, and coordinated assistance in criminal cases throughout the month.
• RUB 2,696,624 — work of our hotline operators and reporters. Our monitoring group received calls to the hotline and messages in the telegram bot every day, and reported news to aid detainees, not only during large-scale actions, but also for regular detentions that occur almost every day in Russia.
• RUB 2,850,570 — the work of our media team. We believe that information can be a powerful tool in protecting political rights. To make information about political rights violations public, we prepared and published significant articles, created guides for major criminal cases, launched special projects, gave interviews, and talked about it on all available social networks.
• RUB 3,249,850 — data projects, reports, research, and advocacy. We collect and analyse data on political persecution to make informed decisions and help journalists and researchers understand the situation. Based on the collected data, we prepare comprehensive reports that analyse how legislative practices and repressive laws enable political persecution.
• RUB 3,050,318 — the work of our IT team. We developed tools and services that help to protect ourselves and others, ensure the stable operation of our entire system, and share our work with other initiatives.
• RUB 1,355,420 — volunteer coordination. Our volunteers are our backbone and the best team of like-minded individuals. We are committed to expanding our community and ensuring that volunteers actively participate in the project’s life.
• RUB 4,486,685 — operational support of the project. Thanks to this work, which is not always visible, we continue to help those who need help and spend our energy and resources more efficiently. It includes the costs of team members who ensure the daily work and planning of the project and are responsible for the sustainability of OVD-Info in the long term, budget planning, strategic goals, communication with donors and financial transparency. This also includes the costs of caring for team members: psychological assistance, development of the competencies of participants and their safety.
• RUB 3,386,566 — infrastructure costs. Since October 2023, we have included payments for key services (such as telephony) in the expenses of the respective areas. Infrastructure costs encompass components directly related to the team’s operations and the overall project, including office expenses, accounting fees, commissions to infrastructure partners who assist us, and applicable taxes.
• RUB 584,147 — bank account maintenance and payment systems commission. We use several payment systems, and the interest rates are all different. This amount is calculated as a percentage of donations and expenses on the account. It depends not only on our expenses but also on the amount of income. The increase in the amount was also influenced by an increase in the commission from the payment system that we use to accept and process donations.

Thank you so much for being with us!