Two Astrakhan activists leave Russia due to law enforcers' threats

The spouses Yaroslav Savin and Marina Mitaleva, activists from Astrakhan, have left Russia, fearing a fabrication of a criminal case because of their civil position.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Yaroslav Savin was detained on February 17, 2023, on charges of hooliganism and disobedience to a law enforcer. The court arrested him for five days and fined him for depicting the flag of Ukraine in his Telegram channel. Yaroslav went on a hunger strike at the special detention centre; and after his release, he was hospitalized.

According to Savin, law enforcers voiced threats back in February, during his arrest, and his wife was threatened with dismissal from work, the "Kavkaz.Realii"** project reports.

The spouses have left for Armenia and are planning to go to Germany – before leaving Russia, they received a positive response to a request for a humanitarian visa in this country.

According to Savin, in Europe he and his wife are going to continue their human rights activities. Yaroslav links their persecution to his pacifist position.

*On July 23, 2021, the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) added the legal entity "The Insider SIA", the administrator of the domain name of "The Insider" online publication, to the list of the media outlets acting as "foreign agents". On April 15, 2022, Roman Dobrokhotov, the outlet's editor-in-chief, was also included into the list. On July 15 of the same year, "The Insider" was recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia; and its website was blocked in Russia.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

***On December 29, 2021, by the decision of the Moscow City Court, the Russian legal entities of the "International Memorial" and the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" were liquidated. Activists of the organizations have reported that both organizations will continue their work without forming legal entities.