Lenta.Doc

Police officers and provocateurs are attempting to disrupt a one-person picket in support of Nikolay Kavkazsky, and Dmitry Vakulina's speech in support of other “May 6 prisoners” detained at Bolotnaya Square.

Sentences in the "Bolotnaya Square Case." Violent arrests at a protest outside the court. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ilya Yashin, and Alexei Navalny arrested.

Final verdicts in the "Bolotnaya Square Case."

On Friday, February 21, the Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow began announcing the verdict in the Bolotnaya case. The court found eight defendants guilty of participating in “mass riots” and attacking police officers. However, the verdict was not read to the end — an additional hearing was scheduled. Meanwhile, around 400 citizens gathered outside the courthouse (including political activists, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and members of the band Pussy Riot). The police detained half of them: taking them to local precincts and issuing reports for violating regulations on public assemblies and pickets. All detainees were released shortly afterward. Lenta.doc observed the action near the courthouse.

Footage from the court hearing where Vladimir Akimenkov, Nikolai Kavkazsky, Maria Baronova, and Leonid Kovyazin, the defendants in the "Bolotnaya Square Case", were amnestied. Lenta.doc cameramen are escorted out of the courtroom.

Interview with photographer Denis Sinyakov after his release from pretrial detention.

Meeting of the Russian Opposition Coordination Council, which elected speaker Ilya Yashin did not attend.

The verdict in the Kirovles case is announced and Alexei Navalny gives a speech.

The Kirovles case hearing, the appeal hearing, and the live broadcast of the court hearing are shown in the Leninsky District Court.

A meeting of the Russian Opposition Coordination Council (KSO) following the results of the mayoral campaign. Ilya Yashin is against participating in a second KSO. The decision to hold elections for a second Coordination Council has not been made.

Sergey Sobyanin's inauguration, police attack protesters with "Navalny" flags.

Political demostration after the vote count in the Moscow mayoral election. The Electoral Commission is ready to consider Alexei Navalny's complaints about the vote count.

Filming of transgender people while in a car on the way to a "Euroset" store.

The LGBTQ+ parade on the Field of Mars in St. Petersburg was ended early at the request of the police. Despite official approval, authorities cited "citizen complaints." Riot police dispersed the participants with force.

LGBTQ+ activists filing a civil registry office application in St. Petersburg, seeking to draw attention to the lack of equal rights for same-sex couples in Russia.

On the day the law banning "homosexual propaganda among minors" was passed, Fred Perry store employees helped protesters in Moscow escape attacks by Cossacks and "Orthodox activists."

"Kissing Day" protest against the law banning "homosexual propaganda among minors."

A political demostration against the law banning "homosexual propaganda among minors" took place in Hyde Park, Gorky Park, Moscow. Protesters encountered police violence.

On the night of Sunday, February 23, protesters on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) stormed Viktor Yanukovych's residence in Mezhyhirya, near Kiev. After Yanukovych fled the capital on February 22, the guards began allowing anyone inside who wished to see the conditions in which the ousted president had been living.

Footage of protesters in Kyiv who suffered from violence. The night of February 18th–19th was one of the bloodiest moments of the Euromaidan. In the first part of the recording, people try to carry the wounded to ambulances. The second part is a report from inside the burning Trade Unions Building. TW: this footage contains numerous injured individuals (both protesters and security forces), as well as scenes depicting the deceased.

A group of Cossacks at protests in Kyiv. In a street interview with Ilya Azar, a Cossack protester recounts his confinement while evacuating the wounded and the torture that followed.

Footage of the Euromaidan events. Clashes between protesters and security forces. Police use grenades and improvised means; the use of fireworks by protesters. Burning barricades and the singing of protesters.

Footage of the Euromaidan events. Clashes with security forces near the Dynamo football stadium. Police and special forces use sound, stun, and gas grenades. A man in a camouflage jacket and without protective equipment, a vivid character with colourful language, communicates with other protesters.

Footage of the Euromaidan events. A group of protesters makes a raid attempt to help their fellow demonstrators who have been surrounded, and attempts to break through security forces' cordons. The recording also shows a tent camp on the Maidan Square.

At the first Pussy Riot trial, Yekaterina Samutsevich — like the other defendants — was represented by a well-known team of lawyers: Mark Feygin, Nikolai Polozov, and Violetta Volkova. Their defense strategy was built on the argument of political persecution, while rejecting the very premise that the women had committed “hooliganism”. However, during preparations for the appeal, Samutsevich unexpectedly dismissed the entire legal team, stating that they had failed to take into account the specific circumstances of her involvement in the action: she was removed from the cathedral by security before the main part of the performance began. Feygin himself later explained that “hooliganism” is considered a crime from the moment “she [Samutsevich] entered the cathedral,” and he claimed that Samutsevich had struck a police officer with a guitar and “resisted arrest,” being the only member of the group to do so. Samutsevich hired a new lawyer, Irina Khrunova, who built the appeal around this technical detail and convinced the court that her role was legally distinguishable from that of the other participants. In October 2012, the appeals court replaced Samutsevich’s prison sentence with a suspended one and released her directly from the courtroom, while Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina remained in penal colonies. Feygin argued that there were no legal grounds for her release (she had no children and no job) and suggested that Samutsevich had likely been “worked on” by a prison informant and agreed to admit guilt — something the other two refused to do. Afterward, rumors spread in the media and within the opposition community that Samutsevich had “cut a deal” with the authorities and “betrayed” the other members in order to gain her freedom. She denies this, insisting that her release was the result of a different legal strategy alone, and describing what happened as “the system’s sly maneuvering.”

Natalia, the mother of Maria Alyokhina, convicted in the Pussy Riot case, gives an interview before meeting her daughter after her release from prison. Maria is immediately planning to travel to Krasnoyarsk to visit Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, also convicted in the Pussy Riot case.

A conversation with Natalia, the mother of Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, about feminism.

Maria Alyokhina on her way to visit Nadezhda Tolokonnikova after her release. Pussy Riot members ponder "what's worse — a penal colony or a pretrial detention center?"

The installation of a banner and a solo picket in support of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova outside the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Republic of Mordovia (“The hunger strike of convict N.A. Tolokonnikova was preplanned, September 30, 2013 – Novaya Gazeta”). Police attempt to prevent the banner’s installation, involving three different agencies.

In Correctional Colony No. 1 in the Republic of Mordovia, the father of a prisoner who was waiting for a visit outside the penal colony died. This is what Pyotr Verzilov reports during his visit with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.

Russian march in the Lyublino district of Moscow. Participants march with nationalist symbols.

Continuation of the footage of the Russian March in Lyublino.

Nationalists wanted to carry out a “Russian clean-up” at the market near the Vodny Stadion metro station in Moscow, but police officers detained the nationalists themselves for chanting slogans and gathering a large crowd. However, migrants also fell victim to the raid — they too were detained and sent to the police station.

A report on Tesak and his political actions. After his release from penal colony, Maksim Martsinkevich, better known as Tesak, founded the movement Occupy Pedophilia. Tesak and his supporters lure alleged pedophiles to staged meetings and subject them to abuse with impunity. In addition to this group, there are other far-right organizations in Russia that target dealers of synthetic drugs (“spice”), migrant workers, and homosexuals. Despite the fact that the activists themselves upload videos of their attacks, law enforcement agencies have so far shown almost no reaction. On August 1, it became known that Senator Konstantin Dobrynin had asked the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office to investigate the activities of Occupy Gerontophilia, a group of Tesak’s followers who hunt underage gay youths.

Alexei Navalny’s speech at the political demostration on the 6th May, 2013, where he is supported by nationalist movement leader Alexander Potkin in the nationalist column.

Conversation with Alexander Potkin in a car before the start of the nationalist march in Moscow.