At least four St. Petersburg activists who were detained at an anti-war rally on February 27 received a call from the Investigative Committee for the Northwestern Federal District and were asked to become witnesses for the prosecution in the case of the Vesna movement. Writes about it "The first department".
In conversations, employees of the Investigative Committee called Vesna "bad guys who lure people into the streets" and thus push them to "illegal activities." Some activists were directly asked to admit that Vesna had "fooled his head."
Viasna activists are being persecuted under the so-called “sectarian article”, that is, for “creating a non-profit organization that infringes on the personality and rights of citizens” (part 3 of article 239 of the Criminal Code).
Movement activists believe that they are being persecuted for anti-war activities, members of the Vesna movement called on Russians to take part in anti-war actions on May 9. There are six people involved in this case. They were assigned a measure of restraint in the form of a ban on certain actions.
In May, in St. Petersburg, police raided the homes of movement activists.
Criminal cases under Art. 239 of the Criminal Code also started against supporters of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny and participants in the protests in Ingushetia against the transfer of the border with Chechnya. This article provides for punishment of up to four years in prison.