23:25, 8 December 2023

Rights defenders declare blogger Vadim Kharchenko* political prisoner

Vadim Kharchenko*. Screenshot of the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77opLWXPAaQ *included into the register of foreign agents

The persecution of blogger Vadim Kharchenko* under the article of discrediting the Russian Army is politically motivated, the human rights project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial" has informed and demanded his release and termination of the criminal case against him.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 20, 2023, acquaintances of Vadim Kharchenko*, a blogger from Gelendjik, expressed fear for his life, pointing out that he had not been in touch for two weeks. Kharchenko* was arrested within a criminal case for discrediting the Russian Army, sources said. On March 1, 2023, an investigator explained that Kharchenko* was under inquiry within a criminal case for discrediting the Russian Army for posting a video in his YouTube channel.

The project "Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial" has stated that the article on discrediting the Russian Army, under which Kharchenko* is being prosecuted, is of an anti-legal nature; it was "designed for waging political repressions against authorities' critics and should be cancelled."

Vadim Kharchenko* is a well-known activist and blogger. In his YouTube channel, which has 399,000 subscribers, he talked about political criminal cases, detentions at public events, the law enforcers' lawlessness, problems of the Krasnodar Territory and other regions, and also criticized authorities. It was Kharchenko*'s civic position and the popularity of his video clips that could have caused law enforcers' attention to the blogger, says the website of the above project.

According to human rights defenders, the reason for prosecuting Kharchenko* was in the video he had posted about the retreat of Russian troops from Kherson.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in June 2019, Kharchenko* was attacked by two unknown persons. One of them fired several times, presumably from a traumatic pistol; and the other stabbed him several times.

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

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 8, 2023 at 05:54 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot