Press Release, 27.09.2023

Photo: Oksana Sergeyeva and Valery Kochnev / Photo by the Novgorod Yabloko

On 28 September, the Novgorod District Court will hold two trials on administrative cases regarding the “spread of extremist symbols” against candidates for the Veliky Novgorod City Duma Oksana Sergeyeva and Valery Kochnev.

It should be noted that on 29 August, an administrative protocol was drawn up against surgeon Valery Kochnev, a Yabloko candidate for deputy of the City Duma of Veliky Novgorod, regarding the “demonstration of extremist symbols”. The police found a violation of the law in the publication of a video clip for the song “Zombie” by the Cranberries. The video used chronicle footage from the times of Nazi Germany, and was published by Valery Kochnev on his page in 2021.

On 1 September, it was also reported that the police had drawn up an administrative protocol against Oksana Sergeyeva, another candidate from Yabloko and a current deputy of the Council of the Ermolinsky rural settlement, for posting photographs with a white-blue-white flag.

The photos were published last spring from peaceful rallies in Warsaw in support of Russians who disagreed with Vladimir Putin’s policies. The police decided that these photographs demonstrated the symbols of the Freedom of Russia Legion, which is banned in Russia.

Punishment under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses implies a fine of up to 20,000 roubles or an arrest for up to 15 days. In addition, those found guilty under this article are deprived of the right to be elected for a year. Oksana Sergeyeva’s parliamentary powers expire next year.

“Both the cases are clearly political and framed up; we believe that both were “stitched together” by the police on the order of Governor Andrei Nikitin and the United Russia party. They really didn’t want to see the democratic party Yabloko in the Duma of Veliky Novgorod. So they developed special operations against people who participated in the elections under the flags of the party calling for peace. Yabloko managed to pass to the [Novgorod City] Duma and formed a faction there, but trials and prosecutions against brave and worthy people continue,” activists of the Novgorod branch of the party commented.

Court hearings on administrative cases against Oksana Sergeyeva and Valery Kochnev will be held in the Novgorod District Court (Oktyabrskaya St., 15) on Thursday, September 28, at 14:30 and 15:30. Yabloko calls residents of the city to come to the hearings and support Sergeyeva and Kochneva. The hearings will be open.

Earlier, the Novgorod District Court fined City Duma candidates Anna Cherepanova, Ksenia Cherepanova and Viktor Shalyakin 4,000 roubles each for “disobedience to the police” (https://eng.yabloko.ru/31962-2/ ). The politicians were accused of allegedly having a desire to enter the premises of the precinct electoral commission located at school No. 31 on the night of September 9-10. That night, Anna Cherepanova and Ksenia Cherepanova, as well as Viktor Shalyakin, were blocked in a car near the police station, after which they were escorted to the police station.