A member of the “Voice” movement was searched in Tambov

Vladimir Zhilkin, a human rights activist and a member of the “Holos” voter rights movement in Tambov, is being searched. He announced this in his Telegram channel and stopped communicating.

“Allegedly, it’s an Ivanovo case,” Zhilkin wrote. We are talking about a criminal case under the article on the repeated discrediting of the Russian army, which was brought against the anti-war activist and election observer from Ivanovo Mikhail Gusev. In connection with this case, searches were conducted among members of the “Voice” movement in different regions of Russia in October and November 2022.

In June 2022, Gusev was fined 45 thousand rubles for the poster “*** *****” – the court decided that the stars discredit the Russian army. It is not known about the second case of Gusev under the administrative article on discrediting.

“Holos” believes that the searches of the participants of the movement are unfounded and illegal, the real purpose of their conduct is to obtain information about the activities of the movement.

• Participants of the movement for the protection of voters’ rights “Golos” have been observing elections in Russia and other countries since 2000. The movement itself was founded in 2013. In August 2021, the Russian Ministry of Justice recognized “Golos” as a foreign agent, and a month later, twenty of its regional coordinators received such status.
• From December 1, 2022, the Russian authorities can declare anyone who is under “foreign influence” to be a foreign agent.