Yevgeny Pashutkin, a civil activist from Saransk, was granted asylum in Finland. It was said on his page on vk.com on April 7.
"I’ve been granted asylum and a residence permit in this beautiful country [of Finland]. I’m only going to see Russia from the other side of the Gulf of Finland. Or maybe I'll see the former Russia after it falls apart," Yevgeny Pashutkin said on his page in the social network ironically.
Pashutkin specified in a conversation with "7x7" that he had indicated being persecuted for his activity as a member of Open Russia (OR), considered an undesirable organization by the Russian Prosecutor's office, as the motive for the request for asylum.
— I have undergone the standard procedure [of granting asylum]: I told the whole story, answered additional questions. It took three interviews, since the story was quite long. But in general, the authorities of Finland know about the situation in Russia and about Open Russia. I am not the first member of the OR to be granted asylum here, — Pashutkin told "7x7".
Pashutkin used to be the head of politician Alexei Navalny’s headquarters in Saransk.
In Mordovia, Parshutkin faced criminal prosecution under the article about the activities of an undesirable organization - he requested asylum in Finland in October 2019. In 2019, he was fined under the article about the cooperation with an undesirable organization twice — once for a poster with the design of Open Russia at a rally, then for showing a film about Anastasiya Shevchenko, the first person to be involved in a criminal case about the organization of the work of an undesirable organization in Russia.
On September 12, he was searched in the case of money laundering through Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, 75 million rubles having been sequestrated from Pashutkin's accounts.
Earlier, the former coordinator of Open Russia in Chuvashia was granted asylum in Lithuania. The activists of the Kaliningrad headquarters left Russia to study in Europe and the United States.
