28 March – 10 April 2026
by Anna Karetnikova
Source: Facebook
28 March 2026
I thought I would just limit myself to a simple statement, but given the number of questions, I’ll try to be concise.
The intention of the Russian authorities to declare ‘Memorial’ an extremist organization is an expected step, but that doesn’t make it any less sad and painful. Many people ask: ‘Which ‘Memorial’?’ Well, it’s supposedly a ‘public movement’.’ Such an institution does not actually exist, but what is really being criminalized is the word itself, and the symbols with it. As in the case of the non-existent public ‘LGBT movement,’ and the similarly categorised ‘AUE movement’, this is exactly the kind of vague, open-ended decision according to which anyone can be accused of ‘belonging to the movement’ if needed. For example, just because someone’s hat vaguely resembles an extremist logo.
All forms of interaction are being criminalized: donations, receiving aid – and yes, even the most innocent forms, such as excursions, if they fall under this umbrella. (But I should note, it’s only from the moment of official designation. Right now, if you are in Russia, it might be worth checking whether you have a subscription or donations set up for any initiative that could potentially be associated with ‘Memorial’, just in case.)
Of course, this is purely my subjective opinion, and I am sure the organization will make its own statement and provide important guidance on what is and isn’t allowed.
So, why is this being done? Well, the point is to completely ban, discredit, and stigmatize it, put it on par with hapless ‘Satanists’ (also labelled as an international movement), and sever any ties with Russia and its living, breathing society. ‘Memorial’ had already been classified as a ‘foreign agent’ and banned organization, yet its reputation remained rather strong. It is clear that the Russian authorities are unwilling to tolerate that.
Why they are unwilling is a separate question. Indeed, the current power structure is to a large extent in the hands of the FSB, which succeeds the NKVD, and references to Stalinist repressions are unpleasant for them – if not a knife to the heart, then at the very least the grating sound of fingernails scraping across glass. And drawing parallels with the present situation is even more maddening. No ‘Last Addresses,’ no ‘victims of repression’. Not then and not now.
Secondly, ‘Memorial’ is associated with human rights. But no, from the perspective of the Russian state, human rights should be associated with the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, headed by Valery Fadeyev. Whatever the council says – that’s what human rights are. Everything else is extremism. One could even end up in prison for some incorrect understanding of human rights.
In short, this is an attack on its image. It’s like Oxxxymiron’s semi-cancelled line about a ‘forbidden organization’: “we have no charter, no flag…” Now, apparently, there is no logo either.
Well, we’ll see. These are difficult situations, but not hopeless ones.
Source: Facebook
1 April 2026
Well, here we go! We won’t be living in wonderful Nanterre after all; either the agency or the landlords didn’t like our file (unfortunately, we’ll never know which exactly). Thank you to everyone who warned us that this was likely to happen and that we are only at the beginning of a long and thorny journey of house hunting. So we haven’t given up, and Seryozha is still full of determination (and so am I, generally speaking). Any advice is still welcome (of course, it doesn’t have to be followed, since everyone’s situation is different), and our request remains the same: how can the two of us move to some town not too far from Paris, along the RER or metro line, into a 3-room apartment with a budget of up to €1,500 (an absolute maximum). And also with a few other requirements: a balcony and a lift. Maybe someone right now happens to know such a place? …Things like that happen, don’t they – you’re sitting there drinking tea, and a neighbour comes by for the third time that day saying: ‘Come on, seriously, give me some advice, tell me who I could rent my exactly-as-described apartment to!’ 😊 If that happens, don’t hesitate – send them to us, and us to them!
Anyway, the search continues!
Source: Facebook
6 April 2026
37-year-old Yakubdzhoni Yusufzoda died by suicide in the Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison; he could not be saved. He was accused of helping defendants involved in the Crocus attack pay for rented apartments, and had received a life sentence. Kommersant reports that Dzhabrail Aushev, held in Moscow’s Remand Prison No. 3, also attempted to take his own life, but doctors were able to resuscitate him. Aushev was also serving a life sentence; he was accused of selling the perpetrators of the terrorist attack an assault rifle, and he had previously attempted suicide while being held in a remand prison.
Source: Facebook
7 April 1026
The courts have brought one of the stories described in my book “I Am an FSIN Employee” to a conclusion. ‘A court in Moscow sentenced former deputy head of the Butyrka remand prison, Andrei Tsyganov, to two years and 10 months of compulsory work in custody. He was found guilty of setting up a cryptocurrency mining farm in a psychiatric hospital attached to the detention facility. The senior engineer of the engineering and technical services unit, Maksim Kolchkov, was also sentenced to one year and 11 months of compulsory work.’
They were not sent to prison, and in my opinion, that’s the right decision. Prison should be for those who torture and abuse people. But anyway, what an absurdity among absurdities – ‘a cryptocurrency mining farm in a prison psychiatric hospital’! 😊
And yes, you have to love your job and approach it with creativity and flair. (By the way, he was actually the deputy head of security.)
Source: Facebook
9 April 2026
Is it actually this ‘Memorial’ movement, which was declared extremist today, that’s advocating for the violent overthrow of the foundations of the constitutional order and/or the violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, publicly justifying terrorism, inciting social, racial, national or religious hatred, promoting the exclusivity, superiority, or inferiority of a person, and violating the rights, freedoms, or lawful interests of others on the grounds of their social, racial, national, religious or linguistic affiliation or attitude toward religion, obstructing the electoral rights of citizens and the right to participate in referendums or violating the privacy of voting while combining this with violence or the threat of it, obstructing the lawful activities of state bodies, local self-government bodies, election commissions, public and religious associations or other organizations, using symbols or paraphernalia similar to those the Nazis used to the point of confusion?
Or is it still, in fact, someone else who is doing all the items listed in the first article of the law ‘On Countering Extremism’?
And no, this monstrous ‘movement’ did not invade Ukraine or kill people there. Everyone knows who is doing that.
Source: Facebook
9 April 2026
Right, then. A bit of concrete detail is starting to emerge here. The part about the erosion (nivelirovanie) of historical values is more or less clear. It seems that the FSB officers must be talking about themselves: they themselves and their power are probably considered the core of Russian historical and cultural value. As for spiritual and moral values, I don’t really know – nothing of the kind seems to have been eroded. Where did the Ministry of Justice even get that word? I looked up the exact meaning of the word in a dictionary: it means to smooth out, to make something insignificant. Of course, you can’t make the FSB insignificant. That would offend them – be hurtful, even.
All in all, this now-banned extremist movement is mostly about human rights. So the part about inciting social and religious hatred is also unclear. Between whom exactly was such hatred supposedly incited? Which religion was being attacked? (The social part is easier. Once again, the security services mean themselves, no doubt. They like to consider themselves a social group for some reason.)
And then, naturally, there is also the issue of recognizing those who participated in the activities of terrorist organizations as political prisoners. It’s unclear what the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court are trying to defend here. If there are no political prisoners in Russia, then why does it matter who calls whom what? Or is this just a battle for the purity of a term that should only be applied to other countries, and not to Russia? Or are there actually political prisoners in Russia after all, and therefore one must not label just anyone as such? But in that case, they should publish their own list for comparison.
In reality, I understand that trying to find any logic in all this is a waste of time, but repeating ‘well, this is outright lawlessness’ is also boring at this point. It became lawlessness when they started imprisoning actual, living elderly people and minors, fabricating criminal cases against them. And when they’re just pointlessly pushing paper, declaring someone to be something or other, that’s just a cover operation. So that the value of their work in combating the empathetic part of their own population doesn’t get eroded.
Source: Facebook
9 April 2026
…But hell, it’s still horrifying to live like this, going to bed every night knowing, even if you don’t constantly think about it, that the next morning you might wake up to the sound of a long doorbell ring… then the angle grinder comes out, then you, still half-asleep, are thrown to the floor, you bang your forehead, trying to understand what’s happening, even though, in general terms, you already know what is happening, you were expecting it, but just not today, because why today? It’s hard to prepare for this. They shout at you: ‘Get on the f…king floor, on the floor you bitch, hands up!’ They shout at you again: ‘Name! Surname!’ – you are being filmed, even though you never intended to become a star of the screen in this genre. Well, try to look presentable, you’ll be shown on national television. Your home is turned upside down. Your lawyer nervously tries to argue his case with an indifferent police officer in the stairwell, but you only learn about that a week later, when he finally manages to reach you in the remand prison. For now, time drags by slowly. The shock fades, and then comes despair. This is only the beginning of a long road. With your arms twisted behind your back, you are led into a police van. You take your first steps through investigative corridors toward an office where a blue-eyed man in his thirties, in plain clothes or a smart uniform cap, looks at you with a somewhat disgusted expression and again says: ‘Name? Surname?’ and starts typing something on a keyboard. And so begins your sentence, with prison cells, transfers, and parcels.
This doesn’t happen to you because you kicked an old lady, stole a phone from a drunk person, or got into a fight in a parking lot. You didn’t deal drugs, evade taxes, or even take or give bribes, thereby violating some historical value or mentality. You didn’t set fire to a railway relay cabinet, and you didn’t swear allegiance to ISIS. It doesn’t matter – there are dozens of reasons why this can happen to you. You were a journalist, a lawyer, a volunteer, a stand-up comedian, a human rights defender. You still are, or were in a previous life. You wrote or reposted something online, you left a comment, sent money, talked on a messenger app, forgot to remove a black square or a red circle. Or another symbol. Or you did nothing at all, but someone wrote a denunciation about you – the wife or mother-in-law of a soldier, or a colleague at work. But that’s unlikely. Most likely, you did something. Or thought something. And that’s why you didn’t believe that it would happen to you, but you were expecting it. Simply because nothing just happens for no reason.
Spoiler: they also come for those who weren’t expecting it. Or will come a bit later. It doesn’t stop on its own.
You almost want to say ‘Glory to the heroes!’, to those who manage to fall asleep without thinking about the morning ahead. Or do you want to say, ‘damn, how did this happen? How did we ever allow this to happen?’
It’s not 1937. It’s 2026. So strange…
Source: Facebook
10 April 2026
Everything is developing rather quickly – the FSB is taking back control. Interestingly, the Kremlin Central Detention Centre and the Upper Matrosskaya Tishina remain under the Federal Penitentiary Service [FSIN]. Or rather, under the Investigative Committee, presumably. So this is where all the bargaining led.
The Insider reports that the FSB has taken control of seven FSIN remand prisons [SIZO]. In most of them, the heads have been replaced. This is confirmed by data in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL).
The following detention centres have been transferred to FSB control:
- SIZO-2 of the FSIN of Russia, Moscow (‘Lefortovo’)
- SIZO-3 of the FSIN of Russia, St. Petersburg
- SIZO-4 of the FSIN of Russia, Rostov-on-Don
- SIZO-5 of the FSIN of Russia, Krasnodar
- SIZO-6 of the FSIN of Russia, Vladikavkaz
- SIZO-7 of the FSIN of Russia, Chelyabinsk
- SIZO-8 of the FSIN of Russia, Simferopol
The transfer of these detention centres was not accompanied by any public statements from either the FSIN or FSB and was not previously reported in the media. At the same time, at least four of them saw changes in leadership.
The transfer took place after the law came into force allowing the FSB to have its own pre-trial detention centres – it took effect on 1 January 2026. The changes were carried out in two stages: the Lefortovo detention centre was re-registered on March 2, 2026, while the remaining detention centres were re-registered on March 23.
Source: Facebook
Translated by Annabel Pedgley
