The Vologda City Court arrested local activist and lawyer Yevgeny Molotov in a criminal case that was opened due to the fact that he donated one thousand rubles to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) of Alexei Navalny. SotaVision and the activist’s comrade-in-arms Evgeniy Domozhirov reported this on their Telegram channel.
According to a friend, a case was opened against Molotov under the article on financing extremist activities (Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code). FBK and Navalny's headquarters were recognized as “extremist organizations” in June 2021; on August 4 of the same year, this decision came into force. Domozhirov noted that the activist made the donation three years ago.
PZK «Memorial» wrote that Since 2011, Molotov has been a social activist in Vologda, and in 2014 he was a candidate for the City Duma. As his colleague said, the activist recently lived in Kazakhstan, but returned to Russia due to his father’s illness — he was diagnosed with the fourth stage of cancer. Mediazona knows that the activist was not listed in the public wanted list of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Molotov’s wife, according to Domozhirov, is not earning any money now. She and her husband have three daughters. The arrest of the Vologda resident became known on January 23. The meeting to select a preventive measure was held the next day.
Memorial immediately assumed that Molotov’s case was connected with “cooperation with FBK.” According to Mediazona’s calculations, by August, in seven months of 2023, security forces had opened five cases related to FBK donations. In the fall, searches took place in several cities. Some of the accused were soon added to the “list of extremists and terrorists.”