The antifascist Yuri Mikheev is the youngest prisoner supported by Solidarity zone. Eighteen-year-old Yuri was arrested, with another person, on 10 November 2023 at a military property in the Moscow region. The Federal Security Service (FSB) have accused these young people of planning to set fire to military equipment. A case has been opened under the Article of the Criminal Code on “preparation of an act of sabotage”. Yuri faces up to ten years’ imprisonment.
From the first few days after Yuri’s arrest, Solidarity zone has given him all-round support, including paying for a lawyer to represent him. In May, we launched a second fundraiser to pay for the defence attorney’s work over a six-month period. Most of the necessary sum has been raised and paid, but we need to raise a further €900 to complete payment up to November.
Yuri Mikheev is a prisoner of wartime. If Russia had not invaded Ukraine, this case would never have happened. For Yuri, a lawyer brings not only a chance to reduce his probable sentence, but also some protection from the arbitrary terror of the security services, from pressure and from torture.
The antifascist Yuri Mikheev is the youngest prisoner supported by Solidarity zone. Eighteen-year-old Yuri was arrested, with another person, on 10 November 2023 at a military property in the Moscow region. The Federal Security Service (FSB) have accused these young people of planning to set fire to military equipment. A case has been opened under the Article of the Criminal Code on “preparation of an act of sabotage”. Yuri faces up to ten years’ imprisonment.
From the first few days after Yuri’s arrest, Solidarity zone has given him all-round support, including paying for a lawyer to represent him. In May, we launched a second fundraiser to pay for the defence attorney’s work over a six-month period. Most of the necessary sum has been raised and paid, but we need to raise a further €900 to complete payment up to November.
Yuri Mikheev is a prisoner of wartime. If Russia had not invaded Ukraine, this case would never have happened. For Yuri, a lawyer brings not only a chance to reduce his probable sentence, but also some protection from the arbitrary terror of the security services, from pressure and from torture.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a driving force in markets for the past few weeks. Telegram was co-founded by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, the brothers who had previously created VKontakte. VK is Russia’s equivalent of Facebook, a social network used for public and private messaging, audio and video sharing as well as online gaming. In January, SimpleWeb reported that VK was Russia’s fourth most-visited website, after Yandex, YouTube and Google’s Russian-language homepage. In 2016, Forbes’ Michael Solomon described Pavel Durov (pictured, below) as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia.” The last couple days have exemplified that uncertainty. On Thursday, news emerged that talks in Turkey between the Russia and Ukraine yielded no positive result. But on Friday, Reuters reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin said there had been some “positive shifts” in talks between the two sides. Multiple pro-Kremlin media figures circulated the post's false claims, including prominent Russian journalist Vladimir Soloviev and the state-controlled Russian outlet RT, according to the DFR Lab's report. The next bit isn’t clear, but Durov reportedly claimed that his resignation, dated March 21st, was an April Fools’ prank. TechCrunch implies that it was a matter of principle, but it’s hard to be clear on the wheres, whos and whys. Similarly, on April 17th, the Moscow Times quoted Durov as saying that he quit the company after being pressured to reveal account details about Ukrainians protesting the then-president Viktor Yanukovych.
from br
