In Arkhangelsk, police arrested activist Andrei Borovikov for organizing an unsanctioned rally in support of politician Alexei Navalny. This happened after a hearing of the Lomonosovsky District Court on January 22. They considered a case on the distribution of pornography, which was initiated against Borovikov in the autumn of 2020 because he had published a music video by Rammstein in a social network. The SOTA Media Outlet reported the activist's arrest in its Telegram channel.
Two hours before the arrest, Andrei Borovikov informed the correspondent of 7x7 about his detention. He was charged with organizing an unsanctioned rally that took place on January 16 and, according to law enforcement officers, caused a violation of public order (Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation). On that day, activists went to the center of Arkhangelsk and recorded a video message in support of Alexei Navalny. Yuri Chesnokov, a member of the regional branch of the Yabloko Party, was charged with the same article. According to Elizaveta Bychkova, the coordinator of the Arkhangelsk headquarters of Alexei Navalny, Chesnokov was detained on January 22. He was going to support Borovikov in court.
According to the activist, the exact date of the hearing on the unauthorized action's case has not yet been set: it will be held either on January 22 or 24 in the Oktyabrsky District Court. He suggested that he would be arrested for 48 hours n this regard. Borovikov was arrested two hours after talking to the correspondent of 7x7.
Meanwhile, the activist's lawyer Alexei Kychin told 7x7 that three witnesses had been interviewed at the court hearing on the case of the distribution of pornography on January 22.
“It was a technical matter, concerning the IP address [of the witnesses]. All of them were Internet users when the case was considered, in 2014. The court tried to find out whether they were involved in the publication of the video by Rammstein on Andrei Borovikov’s page. But they said that they did not even know Andrei Borovikov, someone did not use vk.com, they did not let outsiders into the apartment and no one connected to their network,” said Kychin.
The next meeting is going to be held on February 3. The lawyer said that Alexander Durynin, a former employee of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters who had recorded a covert video at the headquarters and asked Borovikov about the video he had published, would be interviewed there.
Arkhangelsk activist Andrei Borovikov participated in unsanctioned rallies and pickets against the construction of a landfill at Shies and retirement-age increase. In July 2019, he became the head of Alexei Navalny's headquarters in Arkhangelsk.
In 2019, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Arkhangelsk found Andrei Borovikov guilty under Article 212.1 of the Criminal Code (Repeated Violations at Rallies) and imposed 400 hours of community service. The activist is the third person in Russia to be convicted under “Dadin’s article” (named after Ildar Dadin, the first activist convicted under it).
In early September 2020, Borovikov was fined for 4 thousand rubles under Article 6.13 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (Drug Propaganda) for publishing “Legalize” music video by Detsl on vk.com. At the end of the month, Borovikov's apartment was house-checked, and he was accused of distributing pornography. He was prosecuted for publishing “Pussy” music video by German band Rammstein on vk.com in 2014. The Lomonosovsky District Court started considering the case in December 2020. Prosecution witnesses did not attend the first court hearing.
