Press Release, 12.02.2024

Photo: Sergei Piskunov holding a placard “No More Than 2 Terms”/ Photo from social media

UPDATE: 12 February, 11:45 Moscow time. Sergei Piskunov was detained in the Altai Territory. He is suspected of “creating an extremist community” (Article 282.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Now he is being taken to the Rubtsovsky City Court which will choose a preventive measure.

Sergei Piskunov, candidate member of Yabloko and electoral expert in Kuzbass, was arrested. This became known on 12 February. Earlier, on 10 February, his home was searched in connection with the case of “organising an extremist community”, after which the civil activist was taken for questioning, but then released.

On 10 February, civil activist Sergei Piskunov disappeared in Kemerovo. Sergei’s relatives were alarmed: his phone was not answering, which seemed strange to them. The day before, Piskunov came from Belovo to Kemerovo on business, spent the night with relatives, and, leaving the house in the morning, disappeared without a trace. As it turned out, shortly before this, Sergei Piskunov contacted the authorities via the Internet with a notification about holding a public event – a procession (without posters) of one person in order to express his disagreement with the course of the presidential election campaign.

On 10 February, criminal investigation officers came to Sergei Piskunov’s home and gave him a written warning about the inadmissibility of holding any public events. As it turned out, Sergei was under surveillance, and on the day of the protest he was detained in the street by employees of the Centre E (the Main Department for Combatting Extremism). All together they drove to his home in Belovo, where Sergei lives with his grandmother. The house was searched on a “large scale”. According to the search warrant, Sergei Piskunov is suspected of “organising an extremist community”.

After the search, the civil activist was brought to the police department, where he was questioned by officers of FSB and Centre E. According to Piskunov, he spent at least two hours during interrogation, sitting on a chair in his underwear.

During the investigation, Piskunov’s phone was confiscated. Several times the officers tried to find out the password set on the phone. According to Sergei, he suspects that the search was also carried out at his workplace.

Sergei Piskunov reported that he was worried after communication of law enforcement officers in such a form. He also confirmed that personal correspondence in his chats and instant messengers was most likely not a secret for the Centre E any more.

Sergei Piskunov headed the regional branch of the unregistered election observers organisation “Golos” in the Kemerovo region. On 29 September, 2021, the Ministry of Justice recognised Piskunov as the first “foreign agent” in Kuzbass. As Piskunov said, he was recognised as a “foreign agent” because of 9,222 roubles received in 2020 from the League of Voters foundation, previously recognised as a “foreign agent”, and 950 roubles received from a resident of Tajikistan in 2021. In 2022, Piskunov was denied the removal of his status. He was also fined twice totaling 60,000 roubles for failure to provide a “foreign agent” report and for failing to indicate the “foreign agent” status in a comment on someone else’s post on the VKontakte social media.

Sergei Piskunov collaborated with Kemerovo Yabloko in organising election observation. In 2023, he applied to join the party.

Read more about the persecution of Yabloko members since the start of the “special operation”.