In St. Petersburg, a criminal case was opened against three local residents for inciting terrorism and inciting riots in five telegram chats. This was reported by Fontanka without specifying sources.
On May 17, the suspects were searched in Murino, Kolpinsky and Kalininsky districts of St. Petersburg, then they were taken for interrogation to the UK. They were interrogated and issued a written undertaking not to leave.
According to the publication, the case was opened last fall (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code and part 1.1 of article 212 of the Criminal Code). Fontanka claims that the security forces have noticed “radical rhetoric, rejection of law enforcement agencies, justification of violence in their direction and calls for terrorism and unrest” in telegram chats.
Fontanka writes that among the suspects are a 19-year-old student of the Polytechnic University and a 22-year-old native of the Arkhangelsk region, who works at the visa center. Another defendant in the case, the publication named a 21-year-old Petersburger, who on February 25, 2022, the Pushkinsky District Court arrested for six days under a protocol on participation in an anti-war rally.
The court website published a ruling on administrative arrest for the same period of 21-year-old Marianella Filatova under the article on the mass simultaneous movement of citizens in public places (part 1 of article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) on Nevsky Prospekt on February 25 last year. The fact that it was Filatova who became one of the suspects is reported by 47news. Both publications claim that, unlike the other two defendants, a case has been opened against her for incitement to extremism (Article 280 of the Criminal Code).
47news reports that the reason for the persecution of Petersburgers was, among other things, messages in the chats “I don’t want to kill people”, “City of Rains”, “SPbg1” and “Organizers”. In one of them, the newspaper notes, they publish news from Ukrainian publics and discuss the war in Ukraine.
Lawyer Nikifor Ivanov told Rotunda that on May 17 searches also took place at the home of 23-year-old employee of the cat shelter Daria Nikolaeva and her husband Artem. The reason for this was the criminal case on justifying terrorism and inciting riots (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code and Part 1.1 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code), in which the spouses are witnesses.
Both were taken to the UK and then released. During the search, their equipment and stickers with “anti-government inscriptions” were confiscated. According to Rotunda, the case was initiated due to messages from a year ago in telegram chats “I don’t want to kill people”, “Open chat no war” and “Organizers”. According to the lawyer, the security forces asked Nikolaeva if she knew the chat administrators and their contacts.
At the same time, the human rights project OVD-Info, citing an acquaintance of Darya, wrote that her last name was Nikiforova and that the security forces had taken “40 anti-war stickers” from her apartment. The girl’s mother, Elizaveta, told the Rotunda that her house was also searched.