Press Release, 7.10.2025

Photo: Konstantin Smirnov attended the court hearing via video conference from the remand prison / Photo by Ryazan Yabloko

On 6 October, the Ryazan Regional Court considered the defence appeal by Konstantin Smirnov, Chairman of the Ryazan branch of Yabloko and editor-in-chief of the Vidsboku online media, against the ruling by Sovetsky District Court of Ryazan of 26 September, which extended his arrest at the petition of the investigator.

Lawyer Andrei Kuryatnikov and Konstantin Smirnov himself noted that the decision was unlawful and unfounded.

“The court’s ruling is completely unsubstantiated, the granting of the investigation’s petition to hold me in custody is not supported by any arguments at all,” Konstantin Smirnov stated in the regional court. “The judge mentions our arguments with which she disagrees. But she does not mention the investigator’s arguments that were directly refuted.”

The judge did not grant the defence’s petition to impose house arrest on Konstantin Smirnov in the Ryazan district instead of keeping him in custody, citing that there would be obstacles in delivering him to the investigator. Konstantin Smirnov’s lawyer drew the court’s attention to the fact that this argument was not verified by the court; there were only the investigator’s explanations, and they were not confirmed by anything.

“The judge prompted the investigator with this argument when she saw that the investigator was unable to provide any arguments independently. And he only said that yes, we had some difficulties with delivery [of Smirnov to court]. He didn’t say what kind of difficulties,” Konstantin Smirnov assessed the dialogue between the investigator  and the judge that took place in the court of first instance.

Among the grounds for extending Konstantin Smirnov’s arrest, the investigation also cited the need to obtain expert examination results and familiarise the accused with them.

“Well, one of the examinations has been received, and I haven’t been familiarised with it for a very long time,” Smirnov stated. “That is, there are completely obvious manipulations, the investigator is acting like a cat on a hot tin roof, as if it is not me on trial, but him.”

Konstantin Smirnov’s term in the remand centre has been extended until 30 November, to ten months in total. Smirnov’s defence lawyer stated that this is simply a tactic of implying pressure on the accused. Konstantin Smirnov repeatedly stated this in court previously, that they held him in the remand centre to force him to admit his non-existing guilt.

Konstantin Smirnov was arrested on the charges of so-called “extortion” when, being a deputy of Dubrovitsy rural settlement, he opposed “municipal reform” (that was reduced to liquidation a number a rural settlements, thus, liquidating local self-government there) and informed residents about public hearings on the issue of liquidating rural settlements.

The Ryazan online media Vidsboku (View from the Side), which published anti-corruption investigations and other hard-hitting materials, under Smirnov’s leadership became one of the most cited regional media in Russia.