The Biryulyovo pogroms: context Part 1

Russian opposition figures Ilya Yashin, Boris Nemtsov, and others take part in the "March Against Scoundrels". Yashin is against carrying posters depicting the faces of State Duma deputies who voted in favor of the law. The march ends, and Nemtsov leaves the sign “as a keepsake.”

In 2013, activists from the Moscow Dormitories Movement and the anti-fascist movement broke into one of the departmental dormitories to prevent the eviction of several families. According to the participants, the residents were being evicted without being provided with alternative housing, despite their long-term residence and permanent registration. The activists claimed that the dormitory had been illegally transferred to a commercial fund and that the new owners were seeking to vacate the premises through the courts.

Opponents of the so-called “Law of Scoundrels” (Magnitsky Act) took to the streets carrying portraits of State Duma deputies. In the campaign headquarters, activists joke about a crookedly pasted poster with Putin’s face: “Stuck on like a bathhouse leaf — no one will be able to peel him off now.” Pensioners sort through placards reading “Shame on Rodnina!”, “Shame on Mironov!”, “Shame on Zhirinovsky!” — everyone has their own “favorites.” One elderly woman hesitates before taking a sign that says “Anatoly Lokot,” sighing: “Well, I’ll take some Lokot at least.” Another remarks, “They’re all from the same place anyway.” “Damn you all, bastards,” others echo. With chants of “Shame on the scoundrels!” and “We are the power here!”, the column moves down the street. Participants then theatrically throw the portraits of the deputies into trash cans. A poster bearing Putin’s image is trampled underfoot — “It won’t wash off,” someone remarks; soon after, however, the soiled portrait is asked to be removed from the frame.

Alexander Dolmatov was an active participant in the 2012–2013 protests and was detained in connection with the Bolotnaya case. He was forcibly sent from the police station to a psychiatric hospital. After his release, he fled to the Netherlands but complained of being persecuted by the special services. The Dutch authorities denied him political asylum and placed him in a deportation center, where he was later found hanged. Lenta’s report looks at how his relatives have lived since his death — how they received condolences from the Queen of the Netherlands and fended off intrusive reporters from NTV. “There’s no place here for bright people. For those who think, who reason. They’re afraid of them,” says one of Dolmatov’s relatives.

Olga Romanova, Boris Nemtsov, and other supporters attend a hearing at the Ivanovsky District Court concerning the parole request of Romanova’s husband, businessman Alexei Kozlov. Nemtsov criticizes the case against the entrepreneur, calling it an example of “a corporate raid carried out with the support of the security services,” and links the prosecution to a business dispute over the Iskozh enterprise and the interests of former senator Vladimir Slutsker. He emphasizes that the investigation appeared biased and was conducted with numerous procedural violations. Nemtsov also draws attention to a conflict of interest, noting that Andrei Babushkin, a member of Moscow’s Public Monitoring Commission (ONK) who had visited Kozlov in pretrial detention, should not have any ties to commercial entities potentially involved in the case: “It’s a textbook conflict of interest — being the chairman of the board of a fund factory and at the same time a member of the ONK. He’s essentially overseeing himself. That’s corruption.”Nemtsov’s point was that a person connected to a business structure (Fondzavod / Fondservis) while simultaneously serving on the ONK creates a situation of potential corruption through conflicting interests — a claim used by Kozlov’s defense as evidence of systemic bias.

On the morning of February 23, a group of political activists held a rally in solidarity with Ukrainian opposition figures who, after months of confrontation with the authorities, managed to secure the president's resignation. The activists set fire to car tires in the center of St. Petersburg and unfurled Ukrainian flags, after which they were detained by the police. The organizers of the protest explained that they had decided to mark the “Maidan holiday” in this way and to express their protest against “imperial chauvinism.” Among the participants in the event was the artist Petr Pavlensky.