Press Release, 10.10.2022

Photo: Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Chairman of the Yakutsk branch of Yabloko / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 10 October, an investigator of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) appointed a forensic psychiatric examination for Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Chairman of the Yakutsk branch of Yabloko. Now Nogovitsyn is under investigation as part of a criminal case under Article 280.3 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation”). Relatives of the civil activist are sure that the psychiatric examination was ordered without any grounds, and they are afraid of its consequences.

Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the leader of the Yakutsk Yabloko, was already found guilty on 13 April of “discrediting the army”, for which he received an administrative fine of 30,000 roubles. On 22 September, the politician published a video message on his Telegram channel criticizing the so-called “special operation” and “partial mobilisation”, after which a criminal case was initiated against him.

The decision on the appointment of a forensic psychiatric examination, signed by Lieutenant of Justice Grigoryev, runs that “Nogovitsyn was repeatedly brought to administrative [responsibility] for committing offenses related to public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the RF”. As far as Yabloko knows, Nogovitsyn has only been brought to administrative responsibility once.

Further, the investigator concludes that it became necessary to conduct a forensic psychiatric examination of Anatoly Nogovitsyn. According to the appointment, experts from the Yakut Republican Psychoneurological Dispensary will have to decide whether Nogovitsyn needs to be applied coercive medical measures. The investigator also wants to find out if the politician had a mental disorder at the time when he opposed the “special operation”, “partial mobilisation” and called for thinking about the responsibility for what was happening.

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