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The Investigative Committee has closed the criminal case against Khabarovsk activist Tatyana Lukyanova, who was accused of repeat incitement of hatred (Part 1, Article 282 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by her defence lawyer from OVD-Info, Vitaly Tykhta.
According to the decision, the investigator concluded that the activist’s actions did not constitute a crime.
The criminal case was initiated on 29 March 2024. Before this, Lukyanova had already been held administratively liable under the article on incitement of hatred (Article 20.3.1 of the Administrative Code) over comments about law enforcement officers during an interview she gave at a rally in support of the politician Alexei Navalny.
On 10 October 2023, Lukyanova took part in another solo protest with a placard reading “Freedom to political prisoners.” The activist chanted: “10.10.2020—we will not forget, we will not forgive,” “Furgal is innocent,” “Freedom for Furgal” and “Freedom to political prisoners,” and also “expressed her negative attitude toward the actions of court staff, police, prosecutors and the Penal Colony-6, Federal Penitentiary Service for Altai Krai” in an interview with a blogger. The Investigative Committee considered this repeat incitement of hatred and opened a criminal case.
During questioning, the activist insisted that she did not insult anyone in her interview and did not call for any action. The blogger who filmed the protest and interviewed Lukyanova confirmed this.
The official document lists the specific statements that caught the Investigative Committee’s attention: “Shame on these sham courts, shame on those who stood guarding the entrance of the administration building. Fourteen police officers knew there were riot police inside. How can you abuse peaceful unarmed citizens like this?” Lukyanova said to the blogger. She also spoke about the placement of journalist Maria Ponomarenko in a punishment cell and, in this context, accused the head of Penal Colony-6 of abuse, calling him a “little tsar.”
Two expert assessments found no incitement to hostile or violent acts or degradation of human honour and dignity based on belonging to any social group in the activist’s remarks (investigators had raised the issue of hatred being incited against law enforcement, the judiciary and the prosecution).
As a result, on 3 January 2025, the investigator decided to end the criminal case.
Elderly activist Tatyana Lukyanova spent several years participating in rallies in support of Sergei Furgal. In December 2020, after one such rally, she was held in a police station and detention centre for more than two days, despite suffering from cancer and heart problems. She was eventually hospitalised in a pre-infarction state, and underwent heart surgery at the hospital. Lukyanova told OVD-Info about how law enforcement officers surveilled her and treated her after her detention.
Date of decision to close the case added to the update