An Astrakhan resident was convicted in a case involving donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation*.

A court in Astrakhan sentenced local resident Alexei Fedyukovich to a fine, finding him guilty of financing extremist activity.

The Trusovsky District Court of Astrakhan fined 62-year-old local resident Alexei Fedyukovich 300,000 rubles. He was charged with financing extremist activity due to donations to the Anti-Corruption Foundation*.

The text of Alexei Fedyukovich's verdict was removed from the court website, along with the personal information of those involved, but remains archived by a service collecting court rulings. 2 A native of Astrakhan with that name was added to the Rosfinmonitoring register of terrorists and extremists on August 14, according to data from a Telegram bot tracking updates to the list.

According to the verdict, no later than August 5, 2021, Fedyukovich transferred 1,800 rubles to the FBK* account in four transactions. The court found that he was informed of the organization's designation as extremist in early June 2021.

The defendant pleaded guilty, stating that since the beginning of 2022 he had "reconsidered his views" and "realized he was gravely mistaken." As evidence, he provided a letter of gratitude for funding combatants in Ukraine in the amount of 5,000 rubles, according to the verdict.

A law enforcement representative in court stated that Fedyukovich "was not caught participating in a rally in support of Navalny" in 2021, but was interested in the activities of the Anti-Corruption Foundation*, which is confirmed by data from his VKontakte account. As a result, the court sentenced the defendant to the minimum sentence stipulated by the article.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote about several sentences handed down to residents of southern Russia in similar cases involving funding of the Anti-Corruption Foundation*. Thus, a resident of Krasnodar, Sergey Anosov, received a 600 thousand fine for a donation of 2,100 rubles to FBK*, and Ilya Bazikalov from Astrakhan was sentenced to a fine of 500 thousand; Alexander Protasov from Anapa received the same fine for a donation of 500 rubles. At the same time, the court assigned one and a half years of forced labor to Dmitry Dyba from Krasnodar for a donation of 1,050 rubles.

* The Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) is included in the register of foreign agents, designated as extremist, and banned in the Russian Federation. The foundation's founder, Alexei Navalny, was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and terrorists and was sentenced to 19 years in prison for extremism. He died in prison in February 2024. Navalny is recognized as a "prisoner of conscience." The "Caucasian Knot" article "Navalny: The Caucasian Dimension" outlines the opposition leader's views on issues related to the Caucasus.

** Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.