Week-ending 15 October 2021
On 11 October 2021 colleagues of the former executive director of the pro-democracy Open Russia movement, Andrei Pivovarov, currently in custody, said he has been charged with heading an “undesirable” organization, despite the fact that Open Russia was dissolved in May. The charge apparently is based on 30 posts on Pivovarov’s Facebook account and one repost that included negative comments about the FSB and police actions and expressed support for protesters. Pivovarov was removed from a plane about to take off from St Petersburg for Warsaw in May and has since been in pre-trial detention. If convited, he faces up to six years in prison.
Source:
RFE/RL, 11 October 2021: The jailed former executive director of the pro-democracy Open Russia movement, Andrei Pivovarov, has been charged with heading an “undesirable” organization, an accusation that stems from a six-year-old law that has repeatedly been used to target critical voices.
