Human rights defenders recognize Rostov activist as political prisoner

Maxim Rachkov, a resident of Rostov-on-Don, was unreasonably arrested in a case on dissemination of fakes about the Russian Armed Forces, human rights defenders announced.

“Being guided by international criteria, the ‘Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial’ project considers Maxim Rachkov a political prisoner. The criminal prosecution violates his constitutional right to freedom of expression,” reports the Telegram channel of the “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial” project, run by a team of the liquidated Human Rights Centre (HRC) “Memorial”*.

The human rights defenders demanded “to immediately release Maxim Rachkov and stop his persecution.”

According to the investigators’ version, a video posted by Maxim Rachkov on March 21 on his page on the social media outlet “VKontakte”, which depicted the actions of Russian militaries in Ukraine, was the dissemination of deliberately false information about the actions of the Russian Armed Forces.

After the beginning of the special military operation, Maxim Rachkov and his family left Russia. In March, at the time of the publication on the social media outlet, he stayed in Turkey, but then returned to Russia. On July 21, the activist was detained and sent to a SIZO (pre-trial prison). Maxim Rachkov is accused of the subjective motive of “political hatred,” which significantly complicates the charge against him, the human rights defenders say.

The “Caucasian Knot” has also reported that the “Support for Political Prisoners” project began raising funds for Alexander Nozdrinov, a journalist from Kuban, who was accused of disseminating fakes about the Russian Armed Forces.

*The organization was included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in the register of NCOs, performing the functions of a foreign agent, and was liquidated by a court’s decision.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 28, 2022 at 09:25 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.