Vitaly Votanovsky, a Krasnodar activist and former volunteer of Alexei Navalny's headquarters in Krasnodar, who published photos of the graves of Wagner PMC fighters, was charged with two criminal cases. He told the publication "7×7 – Horizontal Russia" that he had left the country.
Votanovsky said that the security forces accused him of "re-discrediting" the army (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and "participation in the activities of an undesirable organization" (Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He clarified in an interview with the Protocol publication that he mentioned "undesirable organizations" in the publications of his Telegram channel "Titushki in Krasnodar". Votanovsky said he intended to return to Russia in the event of a change of power.
The police have already brought the activist to administrative responsibility; in April 2022, the court fined him 30 thousand rubles for “discrediting” the army under an administrative article. In October, Votanovsky received a fine of five thousand rubles for reposting material from an “undesirable” organization.
In January, The New York Times published satellite images of graves in the cemetery in the village of Bakinskaya, Krasnodar Territory, where Wagner PMC fighters who died in Ukraine are buried. According to the pictures, the number of graves has grown sevenfold in two months. Messages about the burial in the cemetery of the Wagnerites killed in the war appeared in social networks at the end of December. Among them, they were published by the Telegram channel of Vitaly Votanovsky, against whom criminal cases were opened.