Dmitry Borisov at court. Source: Irina Yatsenko.

This article is part of our partnership with OVD-Info, an NGO that monitors politically-motivated arrests in Russia.

We have published a new set of useful instructions setting out what to do if you have been fined for taking part in a protest in Russia, what difficulties you might encounter if you want (or don’t want) to pay the fine, and how to avoid these difficulties.

Dmitry Borisov, convicted in the 26 March Case, has been released. Hooray! He had been sentenced to one year in a prison colony for raising his foot in the air while four police officers were carrying him during the 26 March 2017 anti-corruption protest in Moscow. He was found guilty of using violence against a police officer. 

You can read our guide to the case here. In it, we tell about each of the accused, the charges on which they were convicted and the discrepancies in the prosecutions.

"No to the fan zone". Source: Telegram. A student at Moscow State University has been suspected of criminal vandalism. According to the investigation, Dmitry Petelin, a first-year student in the faculty of philology, wrote the phrase “No to the fan zone” on a cardboard sign put up outside the university. For this, if convicted, he  faces a penalty ranging from a 40,000 rouble fine to three months in prison. Two other students, arrested as they were sitting exams, are witnesses in the case.  Moscow City Court has upheld the decision to remand five defendants in the “New Greatness” case in custody. The case of one of the defendants was returned for review to a lower court. Maria Dubovik, 19, had waited for the video link to come live from 9 am in a cellar — and all that time she had nothing to eat and was very cold. The case of 18-year-old Anna Pavlikova was sent back to a lower court since she had not been told in advance of the court hearing.

“New Greatness” is an organisation that was set up, judging by the case materials, by police officers who infiltrated the burgeoning movement. Ten people have been charged with organising the activities of an extremist group. However, the charges are based on evidence given by three men who were not arrested. One of them has said that he had been ordered to infiltrate the group.

Film director Oleg Sentsov has been on hunger strike for 25 days.

- Four people were arrested for holding single-person pickets in his support. One of those arrested was jailed for nine days.

• - Antifascist activist Aleksandr Kolchenko, convicted in the same case as Sentsov, has ended his hunger strike in support of Sentsov. Kolchenko stated that he ‘overestimated his own strength.’ Kolchenko’s lawyer has said his client is very weak and has already begun to lose consciousness. During his hunger strike, Kolchenko’s weight fell to 54 kg (Kolchenko is 1 m 90 cm in height). 

• In Tomsk, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been subjected to searches and interrogations. Subsequently, a local resident was arrested. About 30 people were questioned, including an 83-year-old woman. During the interrogations, which continued until 2 a.m. at night, ambulances were called on more than one occasion to treat the detainees. A total of 19 people have been arrested in nine regions on charges of belonging to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Texts

“We fear he won’t survive until the end of the investigation.” We have spoken with Anastasia Pavlikova about the health of her sister Anna, held on remand, and about how the investigation in her case is proceeding.

“A secret witness in contemporary Russia is a great find for an investigating officer who has fabricated the charges.” We publish the third chapter of the book by Bolotnaya Square defendant Dmitry Buchenkov. While under house arrest, Buchenkov fled Russia and is writing a book outside the country, Fabrication of Criminal Cases in the Russian Federation. The book will be on public sale from next week.

We consider who might be on the so-called “Sentsov List”. Film director Oleg Sentsov has declared a hunger strike, demanding the release of all “Ukrainian political prisoners” held in Russia.

“Police officers have disappeared from the streets of Yerevan”. We investigate how the bloodless revolution in Armenia took place, and the role played by Facebook and Telegram in the events.

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