Press Release, 20.05.2024

Photo: Marina Zheleznyakova / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

A search was conducted in Marina Zheleznyakova’s apartment. Police seized equipment and documents. Marina learned about the criminal case opened against her on 24 April on the day of the search. A lawyer is defending her.

The investigation decided that Zhelezhnyakova’s congratulatory post made in 2021 was dissemination of deliberately false information about the activities of the USSR during the World War II.

Punishment under the criminal article on the rehabilitation of Nazism envisages either a fine of up to three million roubles, forced labour or imprisonment for up to three years.

This is not the first time Marina Zheleznyakova has experienced pressure from the security forces. In March 2022, the officers from the Federal Security Service officers and the Main Department for Counteracting Extremism of the Interior Ministry (the so-called Centre E) conducted a search in her apartment. The decision to conduct a search was based on an order to survey of the premises for extremist materials and electronic devices. However, according to security officials, the Deputy Chair of the Yabloko branch in the Maritime Territory, was neither a suspect nor a witness, nevertheless the search was conducted.

A year earlier, Marina Zheleznyakova’s apartment in Vladivostok was searched as part of a criminal case about blocking streets in Moscow, to which she had no relation. During the search police was used violence against her husband.

The Yabloko party is announcing fundraising among Russian citizens to pay for the services of a lawyer for Marina Zheleznyakova. At the moment, 20,000 roubles are needed.

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