On 20 June 2024, Ilya Vasiliev was arrested on charges of disseminating ‘fake news’ about the Russian army, motivated by political hatred (Article 207.3, Part 2, of the Russian Criminal Code). On 22 June, Vasiliev was remanded in custody. If convicted on these charges, he faces up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
The grounds for the prosecution were posts Vasiliev had made on Facebook about Russian war crimes, including the shelling of Kherson and a missile attack on a residential building in Dnipro. Previously, in May 2023, Vasiliev had been arrested and fined for the administrative-law offence of ‘discrediting’ the Russian army. Memorial has recognised Vasiliev as a political prisoner.
Speaking out against the war and drawing public attention to war crimes cannot, in our opinion, be regarded as offences.
Memorial, 9 September 2024
Ilya Vasiliev is a well-known IT enthusiast with the pseudonym ‘Arvi the Hacker’ and founder of the Civic School of Hackers and a computer festival. He is also a Buddhist and teaches at the Moscow Zen Centre and has been a frequent participant in opposition street protests.
The article on the ‘deliberate dissemination of information known to be false about the Russian army,’ under which Vasiliev is being prosecuted, was introduced into the Russian Criminal Code immediately after the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The article effectively prohibits any criticism of the Russian authorities and military, in violation of the right of citizens to freedom of expression. This article contradicts the Russian Constitution, and therefore any charges based on it are unlawful. Furthermore, information contained in the publications for which Vasiliev is being prosecuted cannot be ‘known to be false.’ As a result of the shelling of Kherson on 24 December 2022 and Dnipro on 14 January 2023, dozens of civilians were killed, and civilian infrastructure was destroyed. These war crimes have been documented in detail, and the fact that it was the Russian army that committed them has been proved by independent experts.
– Memorial, 9 September 2024
Write to Russia – Write to Ilya Vasiliev
The Russian penal system does not allow any messages to prisoners that are written in foreign languages, but Write to Russia is here to help you. To write to Ilya Vasiliev to show your support for him, please send your letters as an email to us at: le******************@********il.com. We’ll translate the letters into Russian for you and, depending on your request, either mail the translated letters on your behalf to Ilya Vasiliev or return the letters to you by email for posting in an envelope with an address written in Russian. If we send the letter on your behalf, we ask that you compensate us for the cost of postage from the UK (currently £2.50 – $3.14; €2.92 for one letter). To learn more about our letter writing project, click here: Write to Russia.
The address to write to Ilya Vasiliev is:
109382, г. Москва, ул. Верхние поля, д. 57, ФКУ СИЗО-7 УФСИН России по г. Москве, Васильеву Илье Владимировичу, 1973 г. р
The persons unjustly imprisoned in Russia whose plight our project Write to Russia has highlighted to date can be found at this link:
