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The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has put former FBK and Vesna movement activist Anastasia Goft on the wanted list under a criminal article. She told the SOTA project about this. This is also confirmed by the ministry’s wanted persons database, reports the pro-Kremlin agency TASS.

Goft does not know exactly what she is being accused of.

“I know for sure that it is not for any 'Vesna' case. I have no further information yet. <…> I think it is connected to my activities and funding for the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” said the young woman.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, Goft lived in Lithuania, where she was the coordinator of the Free Navalny campaign in Vilnius. She currently lives in Ukraine, where she married a fighter from the “Russian Volunteer Corps,” and organises fundraising to help Ukrainians.

  • At the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Anastasia Goft was detained at an anti-war protest. In May of the same year, law enforcement raided the flat where she was staying. On that occasion, police detained Vesna activist Polina Barabash, allegedly due to a bomb threat at RANEPA.
  • The Vesna youth movement was founded in 2013 in St Petersburg, and later appeared in other regions of Russia. Since the invasion of Ukraine began, Vesna activists have actively participated in anti-war demonstrations.
  • In May 2022, a criminal case was opened against Vesna supporters for activities of an NGO infringing on citizens' rights (Parts 2 and 3, Article 239 of the Criminal Code). Investigators believe that by posting calls online to join anti-war protests from 25 to 27 February, movement members “incited citizens to commit unlawful acts.” Later, another charge was added to the criminal case—under the article on incitement to mass riots (Part 1.1, Article 212 of the Criminal Code). There are eight defendants: some are subject to restrictions on certain actions, while others have left Russia.
  • In summer 2023, information appeared about a new criminal case related to the movement. Six defendants in this case—Evgeny Zateyev and Valentin Khoroshenin, Vasily Neustroev, Yan Ksenzhepolsky, Pavel Sinelnikov and Anna Arkhipova—were detained after widespread raids on 6 June and brought to Moscow. On 8 June, a court remanded them in custody. There are 21 people involved in the case altogether, some of whom were declared wanted in the summer. All defendants were added to the register of “terrorists and extremists.”