A criminal case has been opened against a former staff member of Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa, a major city in the Urals, under the “foreign agent” article.

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against lawyer Fyodor Telin for failing to comply with the obligations of a “foreign agent” (Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code). Telin himself told OVD-Info about this.

The case was opened back in February, but the lawyer only found out about it in April, after his relatives were summoned for questioning by the Investigative Committee.

“For many years, my work has been aimed at benefiting the people of Russia, not pandering to foreign states. The very fact that a case has been opened against me under the ‘foreign agent’ article is offensive to me,” the human rights defender commented on their prosecution.

Telin is represented by OVD-Info lawyer Maksim Kuznetsov.

• The human rights defender was added to the “foreign agents” registry in November 2022. Since then, courts in Ufa, a major city in the Urals, have fined him six times in administrative cases for violating the “foreign agents” legislation (Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code): three times for not marking posts accordingly, and three more times for failing to submit reports to the Ministry of Justice.
• Telin left Russia in 2021, shortly after the decision to ban the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and Navalny’s headquarters came into force. Even after he had left, law enforcement officers carried out a search at his place.
• Before Navalny’s projects were designated extremist, the lawyer worked for several years at Navalny’s Ufa headquarters. He was prosecuted three times under the “public assembly” article (Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code) for participating in protests or making posts about them.