The Moscow City Court recognized “New Greatness” as an extremist organization and banned the movement’s activities in Russia, according to the telegram channel of the joint press service of the capital’s courts.
First Deputy Prosecutor of Moscow Sergei Savenkov filed a claim with the Moscow City Court to recognize “New Greatness” as an extremist organization on September 8; today the court approved his application.
Participants of the “New Greatness” movement were detained back 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.” For this purpose, as the Investigative Committee considered, activists arranged several trips to the Moscow region to practice shooting and throwing Molotov cocktails.
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 included the testimony of two more witnesses, who also turned out to be informants for the security forces.
Ruslan Kostylenkov, whom the investigation called the leader of “New Greatness,” spoke about torture after his arrest.
In 2018, the court placed six activists, including Pavlikova and Dubovik, under arrest, and the rest were placed 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 Poletaeva were sentenced to suspended sentences — they received 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, but the term was later increased to six years. This happened after Rebrovsky retracted his words and said that the investigator promised him 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 , and later the period was reduced by three months).