Recent protests and detentions in the North Caucasus

| News, North Caucasus

Graffiti with rows of coffins and the inscription "Zinc is ours" appeared in Volgograd. In the corner of the picture is the letter "Z", symbolising Russian military aggression in Ukraine.

A photo of the work was posted by a Volgograd Street artist working under the pseudonym Philippenzo. In the commentary, he called Russia an aggressor country.

“Obviously, no victory in this absolutely senseless and inglorious war awaits Russia, and its main “achievements” will be indelible shame, isolation, debts, poverty, and tens of thousands of ruined and crippled lives, souls, and bodies. Bodies that the Motherland does not even recognise and takes home with great reluctance," the author said with a photo of his work on Instagram.

A branch of the Just Russia-For Truth party in the Krasnodar Territory reported that unidentified persons threw red paint over a banner in the village of Pavlovskaya with the name of the party, in which the letter "z" was replaced with the letter "z" in the form of a St. George ribbon, which has become a symbol of Russia's military aggression in Ukraine.

The former coordinator of Navalny's headquarters in Volgograd, Yevgeny Kochegin, against whom a criminal case was initiated on fakes and a measure of restraint in the form of arrest was chosen in absentia, said that he left the country even before the invasion of Ukraine began. He left the country by plane through Armenia, as he had reasonable suspicions in advance that a criminal case could be opened against him. “I still don’t see my further path as expedient and safe to disclose. When the war began, I was already conducting my activities [away from] Volgograd, from the army," Kochegin added.

In Novorossiysk, a 37-year-old local resident was charged with a "discrediting" article for holding a solitary anti-war picket in the centre of the city. The court fined him 438 euros; the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Krasnodar Territory reports.

The Georgievsky City Court in the Stavropol Territory found local activist Mikhail Pidenko guilty of “discrediting” the armed forces because of several posts on Instagram banned in Russia. Judge Yulia Kurbanova fined him 585 euros.

A local resident Yuri Mishchenko was detained in Krasnodar at a single picket with a placard "No to war." The man was taken to the police department, where they drew up a report on the "defamatory" article, which has not yet been considered by the court.

It also became known that a protocol on "discrediting" the Russian army was drawn up against Alexei Mandrigel, co-organiser of the Smart Surveillance project and coordinator of legal assistance to detainees at anti-war actions in the Krasnodar Territory. As part of the administrative case, the security forces came to the place of residence of the activist. This time, he is charged with posting a petition on Change.org as an appeal to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Earlier, Mandrigeli was prosecuted for participating in the filming of an anti-war video.

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