5 October 2024
OVD-Info is a Russian civil society organisation that monitors politically-motivated arrests and prosecutions in Russia. Each week OVD-Info publishes a bulletin with the latest news, which is translated here. To receive the mailing in Russian, visit here.
Pskov politician Lev Schlosberg is suspected of violating rules imposed on ‘foreign agents’; Aleksandr Gliskov, a member of the Krasnoyarsk regional assembly, has been sentenced to ten years in a strict regime penal colony; and Nikita Zhuravel, convicted of burning a Quran, stands accused of treason.
News
Home of Pskov politician Lev Schlosberg searched Police visited the home of the ex-deputy of Pskov Regional Assembly and leader of the Pskov chapter of the Yabloko political party on 2 November. Schlosberg was taken away for questioning as a suspected of failing to abide by ‘foreign agent’ regulations. His 95-year-old father, Mark Schlosberg, also had his home searched. Lev Schlosberg’s wife described these actions as intimidation.
- Why is this important? Lev Schlosberg has been on the Ministry of Justice’s register of ‘foreign agents’ since June 2023. His prosecution is another example of the foreign agent law being used for political repression. Being officially labelled as a ‘foreign agent’ not only reduces the rights a person has, but also gives the authorities a pretext to press criminal charges for insignificant matters such as inadvertently failing to follow the prescribed rules. You can read more about the pressure applied to those designated foreign agents, and the search of Schlosberg’s home, on our Telegram channel.
Liberal Democratic Party deputy in the Krasnoyarsk regional assembly has been sentenced to ten years in a strict regime penal colony Aleksandr Gliskov was found guilty of taking large bribes. He was also fined ten million roubles and banned from holding public office for eight years. “This was an act of retaliation; the actions taken by the government have no relation to jurisprudence,” Gliskov announced after the sentence was handed down.
- Why do I need to know this? Aleksandr Gliskov labelled the charges pressed against him “an act of political retaliation,” citing the fact that in the 2023 Krasnoyarsk gubernatorial elections he had accused the United Russia party of buying votes. The chair of the United Russia Party, Leonid Slutsky, and Gliskov’s own assistant, Roman Krastelev, both declared the prosecution to be politically motivated. You can see what they mean: we know the lengths the authorities will go to to suppress opposition candidates, and trumped-up criminal charges are one of their favourite methods. For example, accusations of bribery, amongst other things, were brought against another politician opposed to the government, the ex-mayor of Serpukhovsk district in Moscow region, Aleksandr Shestun.
Nikita Zhuravel, convicted of burning a Quran, stands accused of treason The investigative authorities claim Zhuravel used an online messaging service to offer his services to a representative of the Ukrainian security services, after which he sent him a video of a train carrying Russian military equipment, in addition to information about the movements of a car used by the personnel of a Russian military unit. At the end of February, Zhuravel was sentenced to three and a half years in a penal colony for a video showing him burning a Quran outside a Volgograd Mosque. He was charged with offending religious believers’ feelings and religiously motivated hooliganism.
- Why is this important? If convicted, Nikita Zhuravel faces 20 years to life in a penal colony. His case is a perfect example of political pressure and lawlessness in contemporary Russia. In August, a story appeared online that Ramzan Kadyrov’s son, Adam, attacked Zhuravel in a pre-trial detention centre. Chechen politicians, as well as Kadyrov himself, not only accepted that the attack had taken place, but also expressed their support for Adam.
A Moscow nurse sentenced to eight years in prison for anti-war posts Olga Menshikh was convicted on charges of spreading ‘fake news’ about the Russian army, allegedly motivated by political hatred. She claims that charges were pressed against her after she had an argument with a doctor-anaesthetist working in the hospital where she worked. The anaesthetist was temporarily suspended after Menshikh complained about him conducting several unsuccessful operations.
- Why do I need to know this? Olga Menshikh was given a harsh sentence for views she expressed about the war: the prosecution used posts she had written on the VKontakte social networking site criticising attacks on the Western Ukrainian city of Vynnitsia, and the actions of Russian soldiers in the city of Bucha, where hundreds of civilians were shot as Russian forces withdrew from the city. Menshikh denied having written then, claiming that “anyone who wanted to” could have accessed her page. She was originally charged under Article 207.3, Part 1, of the Russian Criminal Code, however the charges were later reclassified under Article 207.3, Part 2, which carries a more severe punishment. After a search of her home, Menshikh was arrested in April and placed under house arrest. However, in September she was remanded in custody pending trial.
Features
“The Russian Inquisition”, the story of the Moscow programmer who almost became a Buddhist monk, but ended up in detention for ‘fake news’ Buddhist and computer programmet Ilya Vasiliyev, also known online as Arvi Hacker, has been charged with creating ‘fake news’ about the Russian army for two Facebook posts. Law enforcement authorities found these posts on his phone, which was confiscated last year in connection with other administrative-law charges related to discrediting the Russian army. OVD-Info tells his story. Continue reading
“What he really needs is freedom, but I can’t give him that.” Support provided to political prisoners from the point of view of those providing it. Right now, more than 1,300 people in Russia are incarcerated for political reasons. Around them there forms a community of family, friends and activists, all helping to break down the isolation of imprisonment. They collect funds for lawyers and parcels of food and other necessities, and in addition they can obtain rare editions of the Bible to pass on to those imprisoned, bring a kitten out of the remand centre, arrange firework displays outside cell windows, and make public details about torture that is being perpetrated. You can read about all of this, and about the burnout and tiredness resulting from such unpaid work, in our new article. Continue reading
Translated by Oscar Seecharan
