The Oktyabrsky District Court of Ivanovo sent 53-year-old engineer and blogger from the city of Shuya Sergei Veselov to a pre-trial detention center. This was reported by lawyer Oscar Cherdzhiev from the human rights project OVD-Info.
Two days ago, on January 22, Veselov, who was already under criminal prosecution, was detained by FSB officers because of a new case — under the article on justification of terrorism ( part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). The blogger told the defense lawyer that he received bruises during the arrest, although he did not offer resistance.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, a resident of the Ivanovo region has become involved in cases under five articles of the Criminal Code, including the last article on terrorism.
In March 2022, a case of vandalism was opened against Veselov due to the inscription “No to war” on the city administration building (Part 1 of Article 214 of the Criminal Code). Because of the anti-war videos on the channel of the blogger, who now has 391 subscribers, he also became accused of four counts of “discrediting” the army (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code).
Veselov’s video “What’s going on with the judicial system in the Russian Federation” became the reason for another case — about insulting a judge (Part 2 of Article 297 of the Criminal Code). The blogger there calls the judge of the Frunzensky District Court Ivanov, who previously imposed a preventive measure on him, a “patented cretin.” The verdict in this case has already been passed — the court ordered 300 hours of compulsory work.
Because of the video “Do not confuse the Germans with the Nazis, and the Russians with Putin’s,” Veselov was also charged with an article about the “rehabilitation of Nazism” (Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code), but the investigation abandoned this charge.
“I am an anti-Soviet “in the fourth generation,” Veselov wrote about himself. — I have never gotten involved in any politics. I've spent my entire career building communications networks. He treated the current regime with disgust, but just waited for them to leave. On February 24, 2022, it became clear that they would not leave on good terms. My patience is over, and I decided not to remain silent.»
Veselov in the Ivanovo Regional Court in October 2023 during an appeal against a verdict in a case of insulting a judge. Photo: Sergey Chigin