First Deputy Prosecutor of Moscow Sergei Savenkov filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court to recognize “New Greatness” as an extremist organization. This is stated on the website of the Ministry of Justice. The first meeting is scheduled for September 19.
Participants of the “New Greatness” movement were detained in March 2018 before the presidential elections. Maria Dubovik, Anna Pavlikova, Vyacheslav Kryukov, Ruslan Kostylenkov, Sergei Gavrilov, Pyotr Karamzin, Maxim Roshchin, Dmitry Poletaev, Pavel Rebrovsky and Rustam Rustamov were accused of creating an extremist community and participating in it (parts 1 and 2 of Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code).
According to investigators, the goal of the movement was “uncontested participation in popular uprisings, revolutionary actions, and in clashes with representatives of the current regime in Russia.” To achieve this, activists arranged several trips to the Moscow region to practice shooting and throwing Molotov cocktails, investigators believe.
The charges were based on the testimony of security forces informant Ruslan D., who, during meetings of activists who met in telegram chats, suggested they create a political organization and write a charter. The case also contains testimony from two more witnesses, who also turned out to be informants for the security forces.
Ruslan Kostylenkov, whom investigators named as the leader of “New Greatness,” spoke about torture after his arrest. The court sent six activists, including Pavlikova and Dubovik, to a pre-trial detention center, and the rest – under house arrest. In the detention center, the girls began to have health problems, and the defense repeatedly asked that another preventive measure be chosen for them. After the Moscow “March of Mothers”, the participants of which demanded the release of Dubovik and Pavlikova from the pre-trial detention center, they were transferred to house arrest.
The case of “New Greatness”. What the investigation has
The decision in the New Greatness case was made in the summer of 2020. Kostylenkov was sentenced to 6 years 9 months in prison, Karamzin – 6 years 3 months, and Kryukov – six years in prison. Dubovik, Pavlikova, Roshchina and Poletaev were given suspended sentences – from four to six and a half years.
The case of Rebrovsky, who made a deal with the investigation and testified against the other defendants, was considered separately. He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, and subsequently the term was increased to six years. This happened after Rebrovsky refused to testify and said that the investigator promised a suspended sentence, not a real one. In July last year, the sentence was commuted by a year. Sergei Gavrilov, who was under house arrest, left Russia.
On January 11, 2023, Pyotr Karamzin was released after serving his sentence in correctional colony No. 4 in the city of Alekseevka in the Belgorod region (when sentencing, his time in a pre-trial detention center was credited , later the period was reduced by three months).
