Правозащита

On November 3, Yuri Mikheev will turn 21. This will be his third birthday in captivity.

In November 2023, 18-year-old Mikheev was detained on the premises of a military base in Dmitrov, near Moscow, on charges of preparing to set military equipment on fire. In February 2025, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for "preparation to commit sabotage." Brothers Matvey and Timofey Melnikov were convicted alongside Yuri and sentenced to 20 and 19 years in prison, respectively.

According to Mediazona, in October 16, 38-year-old Vasily Kuksov was released from Penal Colony No. 16 in the Nizhny Novgorod region. 17th of October he arrived by train in Serdobsk, in the Penza region, where he reunited with his family.

In 2020, Kuksov, a musician and design engineer, was sentenced in Penza to nine years in a penal colony in the case of the “Network organization” (the defendants in this case received sentences of up to 18 years in prison).

We are now supporting another political prisoner — 20-year-old punk musician Maxim Lunin from the town of Verkhnyaya Salda in Sverdlovsk Oblast. There is now a fundraiser for 250 000 rubles to cover six months of work by a lawyer who will defend Lunin at the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg. This is a significant amount for supporters of political prisoners, so we very much hope for your help.

Anton will turn 37 on October 9. This will be his first birthday in prison.

Anton lived in Irkutsk, worked as a security guard and repaired boats, ran a Telegram channel about the history of his hometown, helped homeless animals, and went to punk concerts.

At the end of October 2025, Anton was sentenced to six years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of “justifying terrorism” over two comments on Telegram.

Fires of Freedom was established last year, when Anarchist Black Cross groups were banned in Russia. T-shirts and tote bags from the Fires of Freedom project can now be ordered online. All profits from merchandise sales go towards supporting imprisoned anarchists and anti-fascists in Russia.

T-shirts:

• Sizes: XS to 3XL

Dima has started learning English and plans to learn the basics of German and French. In July and August, the project already sent him English and French textbooks. It is not yet clear whether these suited his needs, so the project wants to send him another batch of study materials, including a German textbook that we need to purchase for him.

Donation details:

Tomorrow on September 3, Moscow antifascist Bogdan Yakimenko will turn 27. This will be his third birthday in captivity.

In February 2026, Bogdan was sentenced to 9 years in a penal colony in the Antifa United “extremist community” case. According to law enforcement, he was the “organizer” of the Antifa United social media page (an antifascist clothing brand) and the “331 Firm” chat, where attacks on “ideological enemies” were allegedly planned.

Written by the support group:

On August 21, our dear Roma will turn 29. This will be the fourth birthday that our comrade will spend in detention.

From Telegram channel of Support Group of Kansk Teenagers:

Wish Nikita a Happy Birthday!

Savely Frolov will turn 25 on 5 August. This will be his fourth birthday in captivity.

Savely is an antifascist and anti-war activist from Moscow who worked as an extreme sports instructor for children and teenagers. He was sentenced to six years in a general-regime penal colony and fined 100,000 roubles on charges of “preparing to commit high treason.” He has been imprisoned since 30 October 2022.

The Tyumen Case has now been heard by the Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg of Russia for two years. The defence is currently presenting evidence in court proving the innocence of our comrades.

Six substantive hearings are scheduled for August and the first half of September. We continue our fight for the freedom of Nikita Oleynik, Deniz Aydin, Yury Neznamov, Danil Chertykov, and Roman Paklin.

Today, July 21, anarchist Deniz Aydin celebrates his birthday. He turns 27 years old.

Deniz is an anarchist and anti-fascist from Tyumen. He played guitar in two bands: the hardcore group Siberian Brigade and the black metal project RASPUTIN. Shortly before his arrest, he enrolled in college to train as a locomotive driver. He planned to continue developing as a musician and dreamed of creating a support fund for political prisoners.

Lyubov Lizunova willturn 20 years old.

In April 2024, Lyuba was sentenced to three and a half years in a general-regime penal colony over posts published on the Telegram channels. Two of the posts described anti-war direct action protests in the Transbaikal region. Initially, Lyuba was also prosecuted on a vandalism charge for the graffiti "Death to the regime" painted on the outskirts of Chita, but that case was later dropped after the statute of limitations expired.

In June, the Fires of Freedom took part in seven events across France. At each event, project representative and former political prisoner Ivan Astashin spoke about the connection between the war in Ukraine and political repression in Russia, Russian anarchists' opposition to the war, and the criminal cases brought against them.

In June, a series of presentations and discussions will take place across France focusing on imprisoned anarchists and anti-fascists in Russia, anti-war resistance, and solidarity with Ukrainian society.

This will be the ninth birthday he spends behind bars.

Vasily was arrested in the autumn of 2017 and sentenced to nine years in a general-regime penal colony. During these years in prison, he has faced many hardships, contracted and recovered from tuberculosis, and been transferred between several colonies. Before his arrest, he lived in Penza, worked as a design engineer, played music, and helped animal shelters.

Lawyer Igor Popovsky, who represented the anarchist Ruslan Sidiki and sought an investigation into his allegations of torture, has been detained on charges of “fraud on an especially large scale”. This was reported by The Insider media outlet, citing the leak-oriented Telegram channel “112.”

According to the channel, investigators claim that Popovsky received 6 million rubles from his client after promising to help terminate the criminal case through influence over the court and the prosecutor’s office.

He will turn 31 years old. According to the support group, this is already the fourth birthday he is spending in captivity.

On April 21, the day after arriving at the colony, Azat was taken to the administration building. They tried to force him to clean a toilet there. After he refused, he was systematically tortured. Yesterday, The Insider published a detailed account by Azat, which they translated into English today. We are republishing an article by The Insider, in which Azat also names his torturers. You may find the postal address and details for financial support after the translation.