Activist Melikhova detained in Sochi

In Sochi, law enforcers have detained Marina Melikhova, an activist, within a criminal case on discrediting the Russian Army.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in September 2022, law enforcers drew up two protocols against Marina Melikhova on discrediting the Russian Army. Later, the court received the third protocol against her under the same article. In October, 2022, a court in Krasnodar imposed a fine on Marina Melikhova, recognizing the publication of a video by a Ukrainian TV company in her YouTube channel as discrediting Russian militaries.

In Sochi, law enforcers came to conduct a search of Marina Melikhova's home within a criminal case on discrediting the Russan Army, the human rights project "OVD-Info"* has informed.

Melikhova herself links her persecution with her pacifist position and human rights activities, the "RusNews" outlet reports.

Earlier, on her YouTube channel, Melikhova announced that on June 21 she planned to go to Novokubansk for a court session within the case of Alexander Nozdrinov, a journalist, who is accused of discrediting the Russian Army. The persecution of Nozdrinov has to do with his civic position, his relatives assert. On May 4, it became known that his defence had presented proofs of his innocence to the court. Nozdrinov's relatives complained about the bias of the court.

*Declared extremist by the Russian Supreme Court in 2010 and banned in the Russian territory.

**Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.