News

A report on cooperation with an “undesirable organisation” (Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offences) has been filed with the Kuybyshevsky District Court in St Petersburg against Elena Orlova, the manager of the Podpisnye Izdaniya bookshop, reported Darya Lebedeva, head of the St Petersburg court press service.

The case was initiated over the sale of Igor Olinevich’s book “Heading for Magadan,” published with support from the Anarchist Black Cross Federation, which has been recognised as “undesirable” in Russia. The court will hear the case on 16 June.

Last week, the St Petersburg bookshop Podpisnye Izdaniya was fined 800,000 roubles (approx. US$8,800) under the “LGBT+ propaganda” law (Part 1, Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

The case against her was triggered by her appearance in a video on the Freies Russland NRW YouTube channel about a “Solidarity Action by Free Russians” that took place on 17 November 2024 in Düsseldorf. She gave a comment to the channel in which she condemned the war in Ukraine. In the video, she was introduced as a member of Freies Russland NRW.

This group was declared “undesirable” in Russia in December 2023. The organisation itself describes itself as a community of Russians and Russian speakers in Germany who oppose the war and Putin.

The Kronstadt District Court of St Petersburg has fined dance teacher Anna Erdynieva 10,000 rubles (about US$110) for an anti-war protest held on 9 May. This was reported by the city courts’ joint press service. Erdynieva’s lawyer from OVD-Info, Nikita Sorokin, confirmed the information about the fine.

On 9 May, a St Petersburg resident went out into the street with a sign reading: “8–9 May is a day to remember and mourn the victims of inhuman aggression.” The paper also had two handwritten slogans, both reading “No to war,” and a drawing of a raccoon.

According to Sorokin, she held two protests in different locations in St Petersburg using the same placard. However, law enforcement treated these as two separate public events.

“In one location she [Anna Erdynieva] allegedly obstructed vehicle traffic, and in another, the passage of military personnel,” her lawyer explained.

Because of these two incidents, she was charged under the article for participating in a picket that interfered with transport infrastructure and pedestrian movement (Part 6.1, Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code). Her lawyer added that the police reports were based on two nearly identical photos taken in different locations. It was under one of these reports that the court fined her today.

Furthermore, as Nikita Sorokin pointed out, writing two reports for the same offence is unlawful as, by law, a person cannot be penalised twice for the same act.

Police also classified the photos of Erdynieva as actions aimed at “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” (Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). For this, too, they drew up two reports against her.

According to Nikita Sorokin, he will appeal the court’s decision to fine Erdynieva at a higher court.

• Anna Erdynieva was detained on 12 May. Security officers lured her to Kronstadt, an island city within St Petersburg, by pretending to be prospective dance clients. She was then taken to the police station, where the reports were drawn up.
• She spent two nights in the station. On 14 May, she was taken to the Kronstadt District Court. The judge sent all the police reports back due to numerous violations, but the officers did not correct the paperwork. The administrative cases were transferred to another judge.
• Upon completion of 48 hours in custody, Erdynieva and her lawyer Nikita Sorokin tried to leave the court building. However, traffic police and the National Guard arrived, preventing their departure. Officers insisted that Sorokin and Erdynieva return to court “to postpone the hearing.”
• Only late in the evening on 14 May were the lawyer and his client released by the police.

The St Petersburg bookshop “Podpisnye Izdaniya” has been fined 800,000 roubles (US$9,000) under the so-called “LGBT propaganda” law (Art. 6.21, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by Mediazona.

The Kuybyshevsky District Court found “LGBT propaganda” in the books “On Women” and “Against Interpretation and Other Essays” by Susan Sontag, as well as “Everybody’s Body” by Olivia Laing.

A representative of the bookshop and the defence emphasised that the writer and publisher, not the shop, are responsible for the books’ content. They also noted that these works were not on the list of extremist materials.

On 10 April, law enforcement officers came to the bookshop for an inspection. They seized several dozen books mentioning LGBT topics. After the inspection, “Podpisnye Izdaniya” was given a list of 48 books to remove from the shelves.

Apple has been fined 5 million roubles (approx. US$55,000) in Russia under two charges of “LGBT propaganda” (Part 3, Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by Mediazona (1, 2).

The charges were heard at the Tagansky District Court in Moscow. The hearings were held behind closed doors at the request of Apple’s representatives.

The reason for the charges is unknown. They were filed against the Irish company Apple Distribution International LTD, which is the founder of the Russian legal entity “Apple Rus.”

Today, the court will also consider another administrative case for “LGBT propaganda” and a second one for refusing to censor content at the request of Russian authorities.

17:30 Apple has been fined a further 2.5 million roubles (approx. US$27,500) under an “LGBT propaganda” charge, reports Mediazona. The total amount of fines under the three charges has reached 7.5 million roubles (approx. US$82,500).

Human rights defender Maksim Davydov, who advocates for the rights of illegally mobilised individuals in occupied Donetsk, has been fined 45,000 roubles (approx. US$500) under the article on “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by ASTRA, citing Davydov himself.

The case was triggered by three comments posted in a Telegram chat called “MDNR.” Two of them were from February this year. The last comment, but in a somewhat different wording, was from November 2024, as discovered by OVD-Info.

• “Astra [an independent Russian publication], the only legal lever to force Russian weakoviks to act”;
• “In the morning of 20 February 2025 in the Chervonohvardeyskyi district of Makiivka [a city in eastern Ukraine], militants from the illegal armed formation ‘Military Commissariat’ are going around vocational colleges in the district searching for fresh meat for assaults. The LPR and DPR authorities no longer need locksmiths, electricians, or turners. The replacement of the native population with Asian savages is in full swing”;
• “The special military operation is a very convenient cover for carrying out the genocide of Slavs. The Ukrainian and Russian authorities are disposing of the native population in close cooperation” (original spelling preserved).

The report on the human rights defender was drawn up by “Centre E” officer Mikhail Krasy. Maksim Davydov himself stated that he was expressing his own personal opinion in the comments.

He also said that the case was considered “illegally and not according to protocol.” In particular, the original papers from the court have no official (wet) stamps.

“I am preparing complaints to the judicial department, to the Supreme Court, I will challenge and file appeals. Only death will stop me,” said Maksim Davydov.

Law enforcement officers carried out a raid at Department 57, a club in St Petersburg, and detained blogger Vlados Miros (real name: Vladislav Morenov). This was reported overnight between 17 and 18 May by several sources: “Ostorozhno, novosti”, VChK-OGPU, REN-TV and Baza.

According to eyewitnesses who spoke to reporters, officers from the Centre for Countering Extremism arrived at the club during the blogger’s performance. They took Morenov off stage, and also detained his choreographer, Anastasia Lukina. The reason for the raid and subsequent detention is unknown.

It is also unclear whether any club visitors were detained. Eyewitnesses told “Ostorozhno, novosti” that officers lined people up against the wall at the entrance and photographed their passports.

After detaining the blogger and his choreographer, the police left the club. Later, venue representatives announced that Vlados Miros’ DJ set was cancelled “for technical reasons.” The current whereabouts of the blogger and his colleague are also unknown.

Vlados Miros is a beauty and lifestyle blogger. His Instagram page has 1.8 million followers.

12:01 Blogger Vlados Miros and choreographer Anastasia Lukina were released after questioning at the police station. This was reported by “Fontanka,” citing the Main Department of Internal Affairs of St Petersburg.

According to the publication, police went to Department 57 after a phone call from the Moscow region. The raid was prompted by information about “an extremist party promoting LGBT propaganda.”

“Fontanka” noted that police held a “preventive conversation” with the party organisers and “found no breaches of public order among the 52 attendees.”

The Adler District Court has fined Daniil Zhukov, a trash streamer from Tula, 150,000 roubles (approximately US$1,700) under the article on “LGBT propaganda” (Part 3, Article 6.21 of the Administrative Offences Code). This was reported by the joint press service of the courts of Krasnodar Krai.

According to Sochi1.ru, the blogger came to Sochi—a resort city on the Black Sea—together with his friend Roman Nilov. They streamed from a rented flat, drank alcohol, and completed viewers’ challenges in exchange for tips.

“The published video content they posted clearly contained propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships. In their streams, the young men asked women to undress and broke bottles over their heads,” journalists reported.

In footage published in a local Telegram channel, two girls are seen kissing.

In court, Daniil Zhukov admitted his guilt in full and expressed remorse.

The court sentenced Roman Nilov to 15 days’ detention under the article on public demonstration of Nazi symbols (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Administrative Offences Code). According to the court, during the stream, a tattoo on the man from Tula appeared on camera, “looking similar to the Nazi swastika symbol.” Nilov also admitted guilt and promised “to take measures to change the tattoo.”

Kirill Kiselyov, administrator of the “Glockmeister” channel from St Petersburg, has been fined 50,000 roubles (about US$550) for saying that Russian National Guard officers are “worse than terrorists.” This was reported by the city’s joint press service of the courts.

According to the Primorsky District Court, on 23 April, Kiselyov published a post in his channel about the presidential administration creating the Russian National Guard. The text of the post included the following: “They [the National Guard officers] are worse than the terrorists who carried out the attacks that killed [Z-military correspondent Vladlen] Tatarsky and General [Igor] Kirillov.” These words no longer appear in the original post, as it has since been changed.

Experts who analysed the post found this sentence to contain a “negative assessment of the employees of the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops.”

The court fined Kirill Kiselyov under the law against spreading information that expresses disrespect for state authority (Part 3 of Article 20.1 of the Administrative Offences Code). The St Petersburg resident did not appear at the hearing; it is unknown whether they admitted guilt.

Because of a meme featuring the frog character Pepe and a photo of Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, a court in Novgorod Region fined Georgy Rezankov under the article on displaying extremist symbols (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The case card of the ruling was discovered by Verstka.

The neighbourhood police officer who drew up the protocol found the saved images on Georgy Rezankov’s VKontakte account. He stated that the photos included “the symbol of the international social movement LGBT.”

The court decision notes that one image features “an anthropomorphic frog from comics, wearing a six-coloured wig,” and the other is a “historical photograph” of Zetkin and Luxemburg with a six-colour flag depicted.

The Novgorod Region resident told the court that the Pepe meme “has nothing to do with LGBT.” He added that the photo of Zetkin and Luxemburg “also does not indicate LGBT propaganda, although some researchers believe they were in a close relationship and lived together.”

The argument that Rezankov had posted the images in 2020, when the “LGBT movement” had not yet been declared extremist in Russia, was not accepted by the judge. She stated that the man had committed an ongoing offence and should have “brought his page into compliance with the law.” The court fined Georgy Rezankov 1,500 rubles (approx. US$16).

As Verstka points out, there were also errors in the court’s ruling. The German feminist activists, instead of being named Zetkin and Luxemburg, became “Tsentkin” and “Lyuksinbur.” When listing the colours of the rainbow flag, the last colour, violet, was replaced a second time with orange.

The Saratov teacher Vera Bashkova was dismissed from her school after being accused of “promoting Nazi symbols.” This was reported by the local outlet Vzglyad-Info, citing the teacher’s husband, Vladimir Bashkov. The publication was noted by ASTRA.

The teacher, from the settlement of Teplichny near Saratov in southern Russia, put on a play for Victory Day (9 May) at the school, based on Valentin Kataev’s novella “Son of the Regiment.” Pupils from the third and eighth grades helped stage it.

The play includes a scene where a Nazi interpreter interrogates the main character, the orphan boy Vanya Sontsev. A local official (whose name and position are not specified) took a photo of this scene.

Later, she forwarded the picture to Larisa Sorokina, the deputy head of the social department in the Gagarinsky District. The photo showed a swastika on the sleeve of the schoolgirl playing the interpreter.

After this, Vera Bashkova was summoned to the department. Sorokina “reprimanded the teacher harshly,” demanded that she remove the St George’s ribbon from her chest, saying: “You’re all wearing these!” and demanded that the teacher resign.

“The novella ‘Son of the Regiment’ is a classic of Soviet literature <…>. Accusing a teacher of promoting Nazism because of a play is absurd. <…> My wife has always attached great importance to fostering love for the Motherland. I can’t hold back from commenting on these officials and their actions—they undermine respect for authority and for the very idea of patriotic education,” said Vladimir Bashkov.

Saratov city hall did not comment on Bashkova’s dismissal.

17:30 Officials in the Gagarinsky District of Saratov will carry out an internal investigation following media reports of a teacher’s dismissal over a play about the Second World War. This was reported by TASS, citing the city administration’s press service.

The internal investigation will involve “all those participant in the story: the deputy responsible for social affairs, the administration and the school staff.” It is important “to speak with children about our country’s history” but also “to prevent incorrect interpretations,” the statement said.

16 May Vera Bashkova’s resignation was annulled, reports Vzglyad-Info, citing the teacher.

This happened on the same day following an internal review and Bashkova’s interview with the prosecutor’s office. On that day, news also broke that Denis Buzanov, a deputy of the Saratov regional parliament, called the accusation of promoting Nazism against the teacher “blatant absurdity.” He sent an appeal to the governor, requesting a review of the legality of the woman’s dismissal.

“The resignation letter I was working out until the end of the week on has been annulled. Larisa Sorokina and I reached an amicable agreement and the conflict is resolved. I am satisfied, and the honest name of the teacher has been restored,” Vzglyad-Info quoted Bashkova as saying.

The court has returned the “LGBT propaganda” case (part 1 of article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offences) against “Podpisnye Izdaniya” to the police. This was reported by Darya Lebedeva, head of the joint press service for St Petersburg.

On 10 April, law enforcement came to the bookshop for an inspection. They confiscated several dozen books mentioning LGBT topics. After the inspection, “Podpisnye Izdaniya” was given a list of 48 books to remove from the shop’s shelves.

The so-called “LGBT propaganda” was allegedly found in three books: “Everybody” by Olivia Laing, and Susan Sontag’s “On Women” and “Against Interpretation and Other Essays,” said Darya Lebedeva. “Podpisnye Izdaniya” disagreed with the protocol.

The case was sent to magistrate court section No. 203, which then referred it by jurisdiction to Kuybyshevsky District Court in St Petersburg. The court found procedural violations in the protocol.

“The case statement is incomplete. The protocol mentions witnesses and victims, but provides no data on them. Some copies of the submitted documents are not certified. The printed publications themselves are absent (and I would have liked to see them, really). So, the protocol is deficient,” wrote Lebedeva.

16 May—Kuybyshevsky District Court in St Petersburg on 15 May re-registered the administrative case of “LGBT propaganda” against “Podpisnye Izdaniya.” It is presumed to be the same case the court returned to the police on 12 May.

Klevitov was detained on 9 May during a solo anti-war protest. At the police station, the young man was beaten and kept overnight, despite there being no legal grounds for doing so. A lawyer was not allowed to see him.

In court, Nataliya Tikhonova highlighted numerous violations. Among other things, she pointed out that instead of conducting an expert assessment, the police simply googled the phrase “No to war. Fascism will not pass”—the exact slogan on Klevitov’s placard.

The Leningrad Regional Court has overturned the fine imposed on St Petersburg priest Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko. He wrote about this on his Telegram channel.

In March, Mikhnov-Vaitenko was fined 15,000 roubles (approx. US$165) under an article for failure to comply with an order to eliminate violations of the “foreign agent” legislation (Part 42, Article 19.5 of the Administrative Code).

The reason was a repost from the outlet Bumaga, which has been designated a “foreign agent.” The court decided that the priest had not indicated the project’s status after being warned by the Ministry of Justice. Mikhnov-Vaitenko himself stated that he had not received any instructions from the authorities. The appeal court agreed that the Ministry of Justice had not properly informed the priest, and cancelled the fine.

Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko was also added to the “foreign agent” register in July 2024. The Ministry of Justice stated that the priest had spoken out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and had spread unreliable information about the actions of the Russian authorities.

In Moscow, the owner of the shop ‘Vedmin put’ (Witch’s Way) has been fined under the public desecration of religious symbols (part 2 of Article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by the Telegram channel for Moscow’s courts of general jurisdiction.

“According to the administrative offence report, ‘Vedmin put’ sells products that offend the feelings of Orthodox Christian believers, namely candles in the form of distorted icons, with depictions of saints, upside-down eight-pointed crosses, and other similar goods,” says the statement.

The justice of the peace for Court District No. 374 of the Tagansky District fined self-employed business owner Anna Avdeeva 100,000 rubles (approximately US$1,100).

Previously, activists from the Orthodox movement ‘Sorok Sorokov’ reported the shop to the authorities. In February, they visited the shop and called the police. The pro-government Telegram channel SHOT claimed at the time that candles shaped like ripped-out hearts and sexual organs, figurines of devils and demons, as well as books published by Ukrainian publishers were being sold there. “All of them were devoted to black magic, the occult and similar topics,” the channel wrote. In the published video, SHOT only showed one book, printed in Kharkiv in 2020—it was about folk superstitions near the church.

Orthodox activists have said they will push for the shop to be closed, and for its owner to be held liable under the law on offence against believers’ feelings.

After this raid, Avdeeva said that the activists behaved rudely, intimidated an employee, broke a camera, and entered the storeroom. The shop’s CCTV camera recorded conversations between the activists and an employee. One activist, dressed in camouflage, said he needed to be sent to war: “You need to go to the trenches for six months and you’ll become a real man. We’ll sort it out for you through the military recruitment office.”

“We have the right to sell goods not banned by law. We have the right to practise esoteric rituals if they are legal. The right to sell items for these practices. The activists’ actions amount to vigilante justice and violate the rights of shop staff <…> Actions aimed at suppressing the religious beliefs of others must be condemned and stopped,” the shop stated after the raid.

‘Vedmin put’ is located in the Tagansky District of Moscow. “It’s a magical shop in the centre of Moscow, with a wide range of handcrafted ritual candles and unique magical goods,” the description on Avdeeva’s website read before the court decision. Now, there is no mention of the shop on her website.

Telegram has deleted the channel of the St Petersburg-based publication MR7, which recently lost its media licence following a demand from Roskomnadzor. ASTRA drew attention to this.

Initially, when attempting to access the channel, it was marked as private. Later, a new channel titled ‘1’ was created under its link, where an image of a cat was posted, SOTA reported. Now, attempting to follow the MR7 channel address shows a message saying that such a page does not exist.

According to Paperpaper.ru, the MR7 editorial team suspects the channel was deliberately hacked to hijack its link. Before this incident, the channel had about 2,600 subscribers.

The outlet also told Rotonda that they plan to discuss the situation with Telegram’s administration. The publication noted the channel was registered to an editorial phone number—its user received no warnings from the messenger and is confident they did not click any malicious links.

According to Important Stories, channels in Telegram usually become private when illegal content is found in them, such as advertisements for drug sales.

In January, the Supreme Court of Russia, acting on Roskomnadzor’s request, revoked MR7’s media licence. The regulatory agency explained its demand was due to the absence of ‘foreign agent’ labelling on two news items on MR7’s website, even though the outlet added the labels after being warned and paid fines for their omission.

In April, several channels that Roskomnadzor had sought to have removed in court disappeared from Telegram. Among them was the anonymous channel ‘VChK-OGPU,’ which had over a million subscribers and posted about crime in government, law enforcement, and military agencies. Its administrators accused the messenger platform of deleting the channel. Telegram’s press office stated that the ‘VChK-OGPU’ channel was deleted by its owner and added: “Possibly as a result of unauthorised access.”

The Yeltsin Centre has cancelled a lecture by philosophy populariser Dmitry Khaustov following a post on the channel “UralLive,” which is connected to Vladimir Solovyov’s propaganda team in the Urals. This was reported by the outlet It’s My City.

According to journalists, Khaustov’s lecture “Gilles Deleuze: An Assembly Guide” was meant to take place today at 19:00. Earlier in the day, the “UralLive” channel posted that the philosophy populariser had spoken out against the war in Ukraine. The channel was also outraged that Khaustov “called the special military operation ‘necropolitical newspeak that turns people into the living dead.’”

A few hours after the post, the Yeltsin Centre announced the lecture was cancelled. No reason was given.

It’s My City notes that this is already the third event since the start of the year to be cancelled following complaints from nationalists in the “Russian Community” and posts by the “UralLive” channel.

In April, the Yeltsin Centre removed director Vladimir Mirzoev’s play “I Killed the Tsar” from its programme, and in February a meeting was disrupted with the poet German Lukomnikov. According to “UralLive” and the “Russian Community,” the individuals involved supposedly hold anti-Russian views.

Because of the music video by the band Nogu Svelo for the song “Hymn of the Doomed,” Vyacheslav Smirnov, a resident of St Petersburg, was fined 30,000 roubles (approximately US$330). This was reported by the joint press service of the St Petersburg courts.

According to them, Smirnov published the musicians’ video on his social media account (the specific platform is not mentioned).

The court found: “That is, intentionally, with the aim of undermining the authority of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and citizens’ trust in the current government, he discredited the character, goals, and objectives of the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation outside the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Smirnov did not admit guilt. He stated that he had not posted the song “Hymn of the Doomed” on his page; there was only a link to the video, not the video itself. Nevertheless, the court fined Smirnov under the article on public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Russian Armed Forces (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

In March this year, the man was detained by FSB officers and police. As reported by the court press service, Smirnov had been selling old watches online and had corresponded with a buyer for several weeks. At a meeting with the buyer, an administrative offence report was drawn up against him for a WhatsApp profile picture featuring the words “Glory to Ukraine.” At that point, security forces also found the link to “Hymn of the Doomed” on his phone.

For the profile picture, a report was made against him for propaganda of Nazi symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The court sentenced him to 10 days’ arrest.

• The band Nogu Svelo released the track “Hymn of the Doomed” (“Goida, orcs!”) in November 2022. It is dedicated to Russian soldiers and Russian citizens who support the war in Ukraine. The music video for the song was created in collaboration with Oleg Kuvayev, the animator of “Masyanya.”

In St Petersburg, the soloist of the band “Silver machine,” Alexey Sidorov, was fined 20,000 roubles (approx. US$220) over the song “Zа наших.” The Primorsky District Court found signs of incitement to hatred or enmity in the track (Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences), according to the press service of the St Petersburg courts.

The song is performed from the perspective of state authorities calling citizens to go to war. The press service statement refers to an expert assessment that concluded: “The primary intent of the materials under examination may be defined as satire with elements of sarcasm.” At the same time, “the ambiguity of the language means that the appeals expressed may be perceived by recipients as calls for violent, including terrorist, actions.”

The press service describes Sidorov as a member of the left-radical movement “Workers’ Power.”

In annexed Sevastopol, the local theatre was forced to cancel performances by a Moscow theatre due to having in its repertoire productions by a late director who had taken a pro-Ukrainian stance. This was reported by Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-appointed head of Sevastopol, on his channel.

The Moscow Vakhtangov Theatre was scheduled to perform three plays on the stage of the Lunacharsky Theatre in Sevastopol, two of which—“The Wind Rustles in the Poplars” and “King Oedipus”—were at one time directed by Lithuanian director Rimas Tuminas. Tuminas had been the artistic director of the Vakhtangov Theatre since 2007, stepped down in May 2022, and died in Lithuania in 2024.

“For those who don’t know: after the start of the ‘special military operation,’ Rimas said that Moscow should be bombed and wanted to stage the play ‘My Friend Bandera,’ but he himself went to his fascist idol. He is a traitor. And I consider it especially blasphemous to show the work of a traitor in Russia’s patriotic capital, in Sevastopol,” wrote Razvozhayev.

The occupation official also promised to reprimand the management of the local Department of Culture and the Lunacharsky Theatre.

The TV channel TV3 has blurred pacifist and queer symbols on the clothing of a character in the French animated series “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.” The Telegram channel “Khlopok” (“Clap”) drew attention to this.

In the fourth episode of the sixth season, the character Mylène Haprèle appeared with several badges on her overalls. The censorship targeted both a badge featuring the LGBTQIA+ progress pride flag and a badge with a peace sign coloured in the Rastafarian flag’s hues.

According to the authors of “Khlopok,” the second badge may have been blurred out because Rastafarianism is associated with cannabis use. Another possible reason is the peace symbol itself, which is often used by opponents of the war in Ukraine.

Apple and SoundCloud have blocked songs by Noize MC and Monetochka for listeners in Russia. This was reported by the Roskomsvoboda project.

According to the project, Apple has blocked eight tracks, including “Strana Dozhdei” (“Land of Rains”), “Ne vse doma” (“Not All There”), “Kooperativ ‘Lebedinoye Ozero’” (“Swan Lake Cooperative”), and “Kriokamery” (“Cryochambers”). At the end of March, these songs appeared in the register of banned websites. Roskomsvoboda notes that the eight tracks blocked by Apple include different versions of the same songs.

Roskomnadzor explained that tracks from Noize MC’s new album “Ne vse doma” (“Not All There”), released this year and featuring a track of the same name, are being blocked, including on “Yandex.Music,” for “dissemination of false socially significant information.”

The song “Childfree,” performed by Noize MC and Monetochka, was also blocked. It has disappeared from Apple Music, and the album containing it is not available on SoundCloud. However, the instrumental version of the track, which contains no lyrics, has not been blocked by Apple. There has been no official announcement by Russian authorities regarding a ban on the song “Childfree.”

At the same time, SoundCloud has blocked only some of the tracks from Noize MC’s “Ne vse doma” album, as well as “Childfree,” which was uploaded to the platform separately, outside of the album release.

In Yekaterinburg, police detained a woman because of blue and yellow stripes on her jacket, reports E1.ru.

Security forces detained 53-year-old Yekaterinburg resident Lyudmila on 9 May. She was wearing a dark jacket featuring Mickey Mouse and stripes in yellow, blue, and grey. Her daughter Anastasia was present at the time of the detention, filming what was happening.

“Your mother is being detained on suspicion of committing an administrative offence under [article] 20.3 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences. Signs of extremism are present,” said the officer.

Anastasia pointed out that their family is originally from Kazakhstan, whose flag uses blue and yellow. “They’re detaining people for no reason at the celebration,” she says on camera.

In the background, an officer asks, “Who are you working for?,” then says, “This citizen is working for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” Another male voice adds: “Yes, you see, she’s got a Ukrainian flag.” “Working for enemy intelligence is not good,” says, presumably, one of the police officers.

Anastasia said that they bought the jacket in Yekaterinburg:

“We bought the jacket at a boutique in the Pekin shopping centre on the second floor. It cost 12,000 rubles (about US$130). There are three stripes: grey, yellow, and blue. The same jackets are sold to Chinese people and in other colours, too. It’s just absurd. Mum wrote a statement of explanation. But they confiscated the jacket. I even offered for her to recolour it right there (we had markers with us). But no. I feel sorry for the jacket.”

Maxim Shkola from Belgorod has been fined for sharing photos of Putin with obscene comments, which he posted on VKontakte nine years ago. This was reported by the outlet “Pepel,” which noted the court decision.

The decision states that officers from Centre “E” found “images of the President of the Russian Federation in an indecent, offensive form, accompanied by obscene, abusive language” on the man’s VKontakte page. The posts were made from April to September 2016.

In court, Shkola admitted his guilt, said he regretted his actions, and deleted the images. He also deleted his social media page.

On 27 March, the Oktyabrsky District Court in Belgorod fined him 50,000 roubles (approx. US$540) for “disrespect for the authorities” (Part 3 of Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

The TV channel “TV3” has cut scenes featuring Anatoly Bely, who has been designated a “foreign agent,” from the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet.” This was reported by the publication Verstka.

This concerns the adaptation of the novella “The Dawns Here Are Quiet…,” which was released in Russian cinemas in 2015. In it, actor Anatoly Bely plays a minor role as Major “Comrade 'Third'.”

In the film, the actor appears for one minute: after a drunken brawl between soldiers, their sergeant Fedot Vaskov is reprimanded by “Comrade 'Third'.” As a result, the major gives Vaskov the task of bringing in new recruits who do not drink.

Additionally, Bely’s character appears at the end of the film, running to the wounded Vaskov with reinforcements. In the TV3 version, Bely is only visible in moments where he cannot be recognised due to blurred footage. Anatoly Bely’s name has also been removed from the film’s credits.

The Ministry of Justice added Anatoly Bely to the register of “foreign agents” in December 2023. The ministry stated that Bely distributed materials from other “foreign agents,” criticised the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and took part in events raising funds for the Ukrainian army.

The Frunzensky District Court of St Petersburg has fined local resident Sergei Gromov 30,000 roubles (approximately US$330) over anti-war posts and a petition. The press service of the St Petersburg courts reported this.

According to police and the court, on 24 February 2022, Gromov posted an image, a caption, and a petition on his Facebook page containing critical remarks about the actions of the Russian army.

“The text of the petition includes statements expressing an encouragement to take actions aimed at obstructing the functioning of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as statements encouraging mass action of some kind,” the press service said.

Additionally, several anti-war publications were found on Gromov’s VKontakte page, which police attached to this administrative case. Gromov himself refused to plead guilty in court.

“Through his actions, he deliberately drew attention to negative aspects of the ‘Special Military Operation,’ discredited the nature, aims, and objectives regarding the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which are employed in accordance with universally recognised principles and norms of international law; however, these actions do not constitute a criminal offence,” the statement reads.

In August 2022, a person named Sergei Gromov was detained after unfolding an anti-war placard in central St Petersburg. A protocol was later drawn up against him for ‘discrediting’ the Russian army.

A protocol for “discrediting the Russian army” (Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences) has been drawn up against Gleb Kalinychev, an activist from Nizhny Novgorod who was convicted in a case concerning a donation to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). This was reported by the Telegram channel “NPKK_info.”

Kalinychev is required to report regularly to the police because he was given a suspended sentence. He turned up at the police station, where officers from the Centre for Countering Extremism were waiting for him. They confiscated his phone and began drafting a protocol.

The police accused the activist over a post dated 24 February 2022, the contents of which are unknown at present. Kalinychev was released after this.

In August 2023, a court in Nizhny Novgorod, a major city on the Volga River east of Moscow, sentenced Gleb Kalinychev to a four-year suspended sentence in a case relating to the financing of extremism (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, he transferred 1,899 rubles (approximately US$20) to the Anti-Corruption Foundation. Kalinychev had been held in a pre-trial detention centre from September 2023 until the verdict was delivered.

The Ural artist Alisa Gorshenina has been fined 100,000 roubles (approximately US$1,100) under the “LGBT propaganda” offence (part 3, article 6.21 of the Administrative Code), she shared on Instagram.

On 24 April, Gorshenina went to the police station for an administrative offence report to be filed, but in the end three reports were drawn up: for “discrediting the army” (part 1, article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code), “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” (part 3, article 6.21 of the Administrative Code) and displaying banned symbols (part 1, article 20.3 of the Administrative Code).

That night, the artist was held in a basement cell in the police station in Nizhny Tagil, a city in the Urals. In the morning, she was taken to court in Yekaterinburg, also in the Urals, where she was jailed for 10 days on the banned symbols report.

“From 25 April to 4 May, I was held in the local special detention facility. The day I spent in the basement and the police station in Nizhny Tagil was counted towards my sentence,” Gorshenina said. “I’m not sure I want to say anything about the detention facility right now, so I’ll keep it brief with a quote from my personal diary, which I kept throughout these days: ‘This is not an unbearable place, but being here is unbearable.’”

On 5 May, Gorshenina was fined for the two remaining reports, totalling 145,000 roubles (approximately US$1,600).

In the closed city of Novouralsk, Sverdlovsk Region, elderly environmental activist Viktor Kazakov has been issued three charges of “discrediting the army” (Part 1, Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The publication “Vecherniye Vedomosti” brought this to attention.

In addition, he has received three more charges of “inciting hatred” (Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

According to a source for “Vecherniye Vedomosti,” the grounds for the charges were Facebook posts, but the content of these posts is unknown. The publication notes that Kazakov’s posts were only visible to friends. It remains unclear how law enforcement became aware of their content. The page has now been deleted.

All six charges were submitted to the Novouralsk City Court on 28 April. Judge Aleksandr Perevoshchikov heard the case that same day.

The judge consolidated the cases into a single proceeding and sentenced Kazakov to 15 days’ arrest, according to “Vecherniye Vedomosti.”

A source at the publication reported that the charges were drawn up by prosecutor Dmitry Mitkin, who had previously issued a warning to “Vecherniye Vedomosti” for reporting on army “discrediting” cases. At the time the protocols were being drawn up, Kazakov was with the prosecutor without legal representation.

In 2022, Kazakov had seven protocols drawn up against him for “discrediting the army,” including for anti-war protests. He was fined for six of these, while another case—for a protest against the war—was dropped on appeal, since Kazakov had already been punished for it under another article.

Kazakov had attracted the attention of local law enforcement even before the war. In 2018, the activist was summoned to an FSB interview over his blog “Novouralsk Free Word.” Officers questioned him about posts in support of prisoners and criticism of the authorities. He also participated in protests against the importation of uranium waste from Europe to Novouralsk. In 2019, because of this, he was charged with violating protest regulations, but the case was later dropped. Around the same time, he was detained by FSB officers for filming a train carrying nuclear waste. The officers demanded he delete the video, but eventually released the activist without success.

A Moscow resident has been fined under the “LGBT propaganda” law (part 3, article 6.21 of the Administrative Code) because of a pornographic meme entitled “Initiation into Nazis (bones).” This decision was highlighted by the publication Parni+.

According to the court’s decision, the Moscow resident’s page contained a two-minute video in which a man shaves his head, laces up white shoelaces on high boots, and then performs oral sex with two skinheads. Several times during the video, images of a swastika are shown. At the end of the video, the text “Join our ranks!!!” appears.

The authorities also found “LGBT propaganda” in two photographs on the Moscow resident’s page. One of these has now been deleted; in the other, two men with a rainbow umbrella are depicted as if about to kiss.

At the hearing, the young man said he had posted the photos and video “for humorous purposes.” The Babushkinsky District Court fined him 100,000 rubles (approximately US$1,070).

Because of the same video, the Moscow resident was also fined 2,000 rubles (approximately US$21) for displaying Nazi symbols (part 1, article 20.3 of the Administrative Code).

Both decisions were issued by the court on 29 April.

Gorshenina herself and the person who drew up the protocol did not attend the hearing. On 25 April, the artist was arrested for 10 days under the article on ‘display of extremist organisation symbols’ (Part 1, Article 20.3…) for using a rainbow emoji on social media. She was released from the detention centre the previous morning, and was not detained again.

Additionally, further protocols were drawn up against Gorshenina under the articles on ‘discrediting the Russian army’ (20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) and ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations’ (Part 3, Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code).

In 2022, Alisa Gorshenina was fined 35,000 roubles (about US$400) under the article on ‘discrediting the army’ because of an anti-war protest. She stood near the Mir children’s centre in Nizhny Tagil, a large city in the Urals, dressed in black with a white rose in her hands. Ribbons emerged from the flower with the words: ‘Epir vӑrҫa hirӗҫ! ’ and ‘Kirәкmi bezgә sugыsh! ’—which means ‘We are against the war! ’ in Chuvash and Tatar.

In 2024, after complaints from pro-government activists, Gorshenina’s workshop at the Yeltsin Centre was cancelled. In summer 2024, Gorshenina gave a lengthy interview to OVD-Info about the pressure she is facing.

Sofia Ivanova, coordinator of the “Golos” movement in Ryazan, had a single kopeck confiscated; the authorities considered the money to be the activist’s income and transferred it to her “special account” as a so-called “foreign agent.” Ivanova herself told Novaya Gazeta about this.

The single kopeck was a bank interest payment on 1,000 rubles (about US$11) that had been sitting for several years in Ivanova’s savings account at Sberbank.

The activist points out that she did not set up the “special account” herself. In addition to the kopeck, just over 10 rubles (about US$0.11) from another account was transferred there.

The Ministry of Justice added Sofia Ivanova to the “foreign agent” register on 29 September 2021. The grounds for Ivanova’s inclusion in the list were 500 rubles (about US$5.50) received from a citizen of Uzbekistan and 15 reposts on social media of materials from Meduza, Radio Free Europe, and other media outlets.

In December 2024, Putin signed a law stating that “foreign agents’” income from the sale or rental of real estate or vehicles, as well as from dividends and interest on deposits, must be paid into special rouble accounts. The same applies to fees “from the use of the results of intellectual activity and brands.” They will only be able to use these funds after they are removed from the “foreign agent” register.

Security forces disrupted concerts in bars in Yekaterinburg and St Petersburg. This was reported by the Telegram channels “78 | NEWS” and “SVET Yekaterinburg.”

In Syndrom bar in Yekaterinburg, a major city in the Urals, several hardcore bands were performing. During the concert by the band “Poloz,” people in masks went on stage and demanded the organisers turn on the lights.

“People were asked to stand against the walls and told there would be an ID check. They checked everyone’s documents, tattoos, elbows, asked about their attitude towards left-wing radical movements, their views on the ‘special military operation,’ and went through messengers on their phones. After checking, people were taken outside and told to move away. Personally I didn’t stay and left, so I don’t know whether the concert went ahead or not,” one of the concert-goers told SVET Yekaterinburg.

It is not known whether anyone was detained at the concert. Eyewitnesses said a few people were put into police vehicles.

In addition, police in St Petersburg came to a closed rave at the underground club Kontrkult. Security forces checked attendees’ documents and searched for banned substances.

According to “78 | NEWS,” the party organisers were detained. Presumably, this was due to holding an unauthorised event.

The Nevyansk City Court in Sverdlovsk Region fined local resident Nikolay Dolgushin 30,000 rubles (approximately US$330) under the law on “discrediting the army” (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences), reports It’s my city.

The reason for the case was a post on Odnoklassniki which, according to the court, contained statements aimed at undermining the reputation of the Russian Armed Forces. Dolgushin had previously been fined under the same article; the court treated this as an aggravating circumstance. He denied his guilt, stating that his page may have been hacked—he uses Odnoklassniki only to look for friends and to find folk medicine recipes.

Security forces conducted a raid at a nightclub in Moscow where, in their view, “suspects involved in LGBT propaganda could have been gathering.” This was reported by RIA Novosti, and the story was highlighted by ASTRA.

According to videos released from the raid, the security forces forced clubgoers to lie face-down on the floor.

According to information from the VChK-OGPU channel, the raid took place at the Bizzare swinger club. The day before, an event called “Sinful ‘MILFs of Ancient Greece’” was held there.

A protocol for “discrediting the army” (Article 20.3.3, Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences) has been drawn up against Yekaterinburg-based activist and architect Polina Ivanova over a Facebook post published in February 2022. The news was reported by 66.ru.

She was detained and has since been released. Due to her detention, she had to cancel a lecture on Yekaterinburg’s history that was planned for today at the Samotsvet bar. The announcement of the event was removed from Samotsvet’s public page.

Previously, the bookshop “Piotrovsky” cancelled the launch of Ivanova’s book “Guide to Sverdlovsk and Yekaterinburg” after complaints from pro-government Telegram channels. “UralLive,” a Telegram channel linked to Vladimir Solovyov’s team and the right-wing group “Russian Community,” highlighted the presentation, which was scheduled for 16 April. According to UralLive’s post, Ivanova “sparked a protest against the Z symbol at the Ural State University of Architecture and Art,” “encouraged Yekaterinburg’s cultural institutions to sign a letter against the ‘special operation,’” attended anti-war protests, collaborated with Yevgeny Volkov (the brother of politician Leonid Volkov), and used a Ukrainian flag as her profile picture. After this post, the bookshop cancelled the activist’s event “for reasons beyond its control.”

At a college in the south-west of Moscow, students are being forced to write a dictation with questions about the war in Ukraine under threat of being barred from exams. This was reported by the “Idite lesom!” (“Get Lost!”) project, citing one of the students.

“At my college, they are making us write the ‘Victory Dictation,’ otherwise we won’t be allowed to take the history exam. During registration for the dictation, you have to fill in your address, name, phone number and so on. The history teacher said that without a certificate confirming we had passed the test, we wouldn’t be admitted to the exam,” the project quotes the student as saying. “Several questions in the dictation tested our knowledge of ‘heroes’ of the ‘special military operation’ who died in battle defending the motherland and other things in that vein.”

The “Victory Dictation” is an educational campaign introduced by United Russia in 2019, consisting of a test on the history of the Second World War. In 2025, following an order by Dmitry Medvedev, questions about the “special military operation” were added to the dictation.

In April, OVD-Info launched the “Of Your Own Free Will” project. Through this initiative, we provide advice to people who are being forced at work or in education to support the war, vote, or take part in patriotic campaigns.

The case against Anna Pyanzina from Perm, brought under the article on incitement of hatred (Article 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code), has been dropped. This was reported by the Telegram channel “Verkhnyaya Kurya Against the Construction of a Migrant Mosque,” and the publication was noted by “7×7—Horizontal Russia.”

In early February, residents of the Verkhnyaya Kurya neighbourhood in Perm, a major city in the Urals, held an event called “Snow Women for the Mosque.” They dressed the figures in headscarves, then redressed them in niqabs. Signs were placed next to the sculptures saying: “Agree to a harem with a fridge,” “I’ll run off with Masturbek,” “I’ll cool the ardour of any migrant.” “We, the women of Verkhnyaya Kurya, do not need migrants with their mosque. But it’s said that someone is still waiting for them,” said Anna Pyanzina, leader of the movement against the mosque, in a video as she glanced towards the snow figures.

On 26 February, an administrative case was initiated against her, based on a linguistic assessment. According to police, Pyanzina had made negative judgements about the social group “men-Muslims-migrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus,” and negatively assessed marrying Muslims and adopting Islam. During questioning, she stated that she had not intended to offend or insult anyone, although she remained opposed to the construction of a large mosque, which she said could provoke the creation of a “migrant enclave.”

The case was sent to the Motovilikhinsky District Court of Perm, but the judge returned it to the police for corrections.

A new linguistic assessment found no “statements asserting or justifying the necessity of hostile actions (involving violence, causing harm or damage).” As a result, the proceedings were terminated due to a complete lack of any offence having occurred.

The Leninsky District Court in Yekaterinburg has sentenced Ural-based artist Alisa Gorshenina to 10 days in detention under the article on displaying symbols of an extremist organisation (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code). This was reported by the pro-government Telegram channel “URALLIVE.”

The court’s press service confirmed Gorshenina’s arrest in a conversation with SOTAvision. She was charged over alleged extremist imagery due to her participation in filming a Pussy Riot music video.

The authors of “URALLIVE” also reported that protocols have been drawn up against Gorshenina under articles on “discrediting” the Russian army (20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) and “promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships” (Part 3, Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code).

In 2022, Alisa Gorshenina was fined 35,000 roubles (approx. US$400) under the army “discreditation” article over an anti-war protest. She appeared outside the Mir children’s centre in Nizhny Tagil, a major city in the Urals, wearing black and holding a white rose. Ribbons streamed from the flower bearing the slogans “Эпир вӑрҫа хирӗҫ!” and “Кирәкми безгә сугыш!”—in Chuvash and Tatar these mean: “We are against the war!”

In 2024, following reports by pro-government activists, Gorshenina’s workshop at the Yeltsin Centre was cancelled. In summer 2024, Gorshenina gave a major interview to OVD-Info discussing the pressure she has been facing.

17:25 Alisa Gorshenina’s lawyer confirmed her arrest, and that two further protocols have been drawn up against her under administrative articles.

The administrative arrest was imposed after Gorshenina posted a rainbow flag emoji on her Instagram, which the security forces deemed extremist organisation symbolism.

A magistrate’s court in the Central District of Moscow has fined the editor-in-chief of “Sports” Vladislav Voronin 200,000 roubles (approx. US$2,200) under the law on “LGBT propaganda” among adults (part 3 of article 6.21 of the Administrative Code). This was reported by the Parni+ project.

The reason for the fine was a piece by journalist Ilya Sobol about the football team Stonewall FC, founded in 1991 by gay players. The article was initially published on the “Sports” website, later deleted, but a copy remained in the Yandex.Zen archive.

According to Roskomnadzor, the article “creates a predisposition to approve non-traditional sexual relationships” and “forms a distorted perception of their equivalence to traditional ones.” The defence insisted that the material had been posted on the platform by a user not connected to the editorial team, but a Roskomnadzor representative noted that, as editor-in-chief, Voronin is responsible for the site’s content and, in the agency’s view, did not meet the requirements of the media law.

The court did not take into account the fact that the article had been deleted following the agency’s complaint.

The Chelyabinsk Regional Court has overturned the arrest of photographer Sergey Likhvatskikh over the letter “N.” He will be released after serving seven days in custody. This was reported by “Chelyabinsk Budushchego” (“Chelyabinsk of the Future”).

On 16 April, the Central District Court in Chelyabinsk, a major city in the Urals, sentenced Likhvatskikh to 11 days under the charge of displaying extremist symbols (Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code). The protocol was drawn up because of a post the photographer made on VKontakte on 2 July 2018 in a group opposing the construction of the Tominsky mining and processing plant. The post featured a photo of a banner with the letter “N”—the symbol of Alexey Navalny’s presidential campaign.

On 19 March, the Sergiyevsky District Court of Samara Region fined 69-year-old elderly man Aleksandr Konchenkov 10,000 roubles (about US$110) under the article on inciting hatred or enmity (Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The outlet Idel.Realii drew attention to the ruling.

The protocol was drawn up against the man because of a comment he posted on VKontakte under a post in the public group “Aleksandr Khinshtein’s Team” in November 2024.

“After all, what we are doing now in Ukraine—no animal is capable of such a thing. We have degraded to a beast-like state. That is what I replied to someone on OK (the social network Odnoklassniki—editor’s note), where he was celebrating our missile strikes on Ukraine. It is already hard to call us human. Instead of helping Ukraine, we attacked. It’s like in Pushkin: ‘We are faint-hearted, we are treacherous, etc,’” Konchenkov wrote.

A linguistic analysis concluded that the comments “contain a negative assessment of a person or group of people on the grounds of belonging to Russian citizens; the representatives of the said group are compared to animals, are characterised as having degraded to the first stage of livestock development; it is difficult to describe them as humans.”

Konchenkov agreed with the protocol and explained to the court that he was expressing his position, but did not know this could carry liability.

The court set the fine taking into account that the man’s pension amounted to 22,700 roubles (about US$250).

The Proletarsky District Court in Tula has fined regional coordinator of the unregistered party “Rassvet” (Dawn), Yevgeny Malyugin, 40,000 roubles (approximately US$430). He was found guilty of “discrediting the Russian army” (Article 20.3.3, Part 1, of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by the “Tula. ExtremiZm” Telegram channel, which is linked to law enforcement. OVD-Info found the case record on the court website.

The court issued the fine yesterday, 21 April. According to “Tula. ExtremiZm,” Malyugin published an article in one of the blogs he manages about the events of the August 1991 coup. In it, he stated that the 106th Tula Airborne Division is currently “meaninglessly shedding blood on foreign soil,” whereas on 21 August 1991, the paratroopers of that division “refused to suppress the protest” at headquarters and “became national heroes.”

In his blog, Malyugin announced that he would challenge the fine.

“I am absolutely confident that such an article [on discrediting] should not exist at all, that people should not be prosecuted for their beliefs, which, in the opinion of law enforcement officers, supposedly ‘discredit’ something. And what is happening to me is unequivocally political pressure,” said Yevgeny Malyugin.

At the end of February, law enforcement detained the activist. He was issued protocols under articles on “LGBT propaganda” (Article 6.21, Part 3, of the Code of Administrative Offences) and discrediting the army.

The first case against the young man was initiated over a photo in his personal Telegram channel. For this, in early April, the court fined Malyugin 100,000 roubles (approximately US$1,080).

• The “Rassvet” party was founded in 2024 by former presidential candidate Yekaterina Duntsova. She stated that her party stands against the war, for democratic reforms, and for repealing laws that violate Russians’ rights, such as the “foreign agents” law. In May 2024, Duntsova herself was added to the list of “foreign agents.”