“Open Russia” activist Shevchenko’s term was shortened by an hour

The Rostov Regional Court shortened the sentence in absentia of Anastasia Shevchenko, a former member of the federal council of the public movement “Open Russia”, from three to two years in a general regime colony.

Shevchenko has not been in Russia since August last year. The Ministry of Internal Affairs declared her wanted.

Anastasia Shevchenko was detained and then arrested in January 2019. The criminal case against her was the first in Russia, initiated under the article “Performance of the activity of an undesirable organization”. As a preventive measure for Shevchenko, the court chose house arrest, under which conditions the accused was kept for almost two years.

In February 2021, Shevchenko was sentenced to four years of probation. Then the appellate court reduced the sentence to three years. However, after the activist left Russia, the court replaced her conditional term with a real one.

The Memorial Human Rights Center recognized Anastasia Shevchenko as a political prisoner. International organization Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience, deprived of freedom only because of her political views. In 2019, Shevchenko became a laureate of the Boris Nemtsov Award “for exceptional courage in defending democratic values ​​and human rights.”

• In May 2015, Vladimir Putin signed the Law on Undesirable Organizations, which prohibits them from operating on the territory of Russia. Any non-governmental organization that, in the opinion of the Prosecutor General or his deputy, represents a “threat to the security of the state and the foundations of the constitutional order” may be considered undesirable. The authorities included the Open Russia Civic Movement and OR (Otkrytaya Rossia) structures registered in Great Britain and associated with Mikhail Khodorkovsky among such organizations. The Russian public movement “Open Russia”, of which Shevchenko was a member, has repeatedly stated that it is not connected with these structures.
• In the spring of 2019, “Open Russia” announced its self-liquidation due to the persecution of its activists. The authorities opened dozens of criminal cases against them. In July 2022, a court in Krasnodar sentenced Andrey Pyvovarov, the former executive director of Otkrytoy Rossii, to four years in a general regime prison. The reason for the persecution was the oppositionist’s posts on Facebook.