The court in Murmansk arrested Marina-Victoria Nagornykh for seven days because of the picket on the day of Navalny’s murder. This was reported by OVD-Info with reference to her lawyer.
On February 16, Nagornykh was detained on the Square of Five Corners with a handwritten poster “Alexey Navalny was killed. His blood is on your hands, Vova.” That same evening she was released with a warning, but in the following days she was detained again three more times in order to draw up a report on the demonstration of extremist symbols (Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code).
So, on February 26, the police took the girl to the Oktyabrsky District Court of Murmansk, but the protocol was returned to them due to errors. On the morning of March 1, the Nagornykhs were detained again, this time the judge considered the case.
“The text of the inscription [of the poster] contains the name and surname of the founder and leader of the public movement “Navalny’s Headquarters”, the non-profit organizations “Fund for the Fight against Corruption” (FBK), "Fund for the Defense of Citizens' Rights" (FZPG), who repeatedly used the first and last name “Alexey Navalny” as paraphernalia and symbols,” the human rights project “First Department” quotes the resolution.
Previously, the article on “prohibited symbols” was already applied to Navalny’s supporters, but the politician’s logo became the reason for persecution — the letter N, the symbol of his Smart Voting project and links to his investigations. The article was used in the case of independent politicians, since the court decision on it that came into force prohibits a person from participating in elections for another year.
At the same time, in February 2024, the article began to be used in other cases, like the Nagornys. Thus, in Krasnodar, a man who posted leaflets with Navalny’s portrait and surname was sentenced to two days of arrest.
In Ulyanovsk, a report was drawn up against the blogger and author of the telegram channel “Simbirsk Shugozhor” Vitaly Akhmerov because of a post about Navalny under a different pretext. According to the police, he did not mention that Navalny’s organizations were recognized by the Russian court as “extremist” (Part 2 of Article 13.15 of the Administrative Code).