A new criminal case was opened against the activists of the Vesna movement

Against five activists from St. Petersburg and Tver, among whom are former members of “Vesna”, a criminal case was initiated under several articles at once. They were searched yesterday, after which they were taken to Moscow.

Valentyn Khoroshenin, a former member of Vesna, is suspected of organizing an extremist community and rehabilitating Nazism. It is not yet known what exactly is being charged with the other ex-activists of the movement – Yevgeny Zateev and Yan Ksenzhepolsky. The latter has already been charged, but the lawyer could not get to him for questioning.

A member of the St. Petersburg Territorial Election Commission, Vasiliy Neustroev, who has nothing to do with “Vesnaya”, is suspected of six criminal articles: organizing an extremist community, rehabilitating Nazism, spreading fakes about the army, inciting mass riots, calling for activities against the state and creating NGOs. encroaching on the personality and rights of citizens.

According to “OVD-Info”, another girl is involved in the case, but nothing is known about her.

According to the information of the “First Department”, the new case is based on posts on Vesny’s social networks from 2022. At that time, the movement was not yet recognized as extremist – the court issued a decision on this in December 2022, and it entered into force in May 2023. After that, the movement announced that it would change the format of the work.

• Youth democratic movement “Spring” was founded in 2013 in St. Petersburg. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the participants of the movement have been holding anti-war actions.
• In May 2022 in In St. Petersburg and Veliky Novgorod, the police conducted searches of former and current supporters of the “Vesna” movement and female activists who announced an anti-war action during the “Immortal Regiment” march on May 9. At the same time, Vesny website was blocked.
• Earlier, a case was opened against Khoroshenin and Zateev – the founders of “Vesna” – under the criminal article about the creation of an NGO that encroaches on the rights of citizens. They have been banned from certain activities for more than a year.