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The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has declared former St Petersburg Legislative Assembly member Maksim Reznik wanted by the authorities. Mediazona reports this, having found his profile in the ministry’s database.

Previously, there had been no reports of a criminal case being opened against Reznik.

In September 2023, the Ministry of Justice added the politician to the register of “foreign agents.” Following this, he was fined three times in total for administrative offences relating to non-compliance with the “foreign agent” legislation (Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

In March 2024, Reznik became a member of the “Anti-War Committee of Russia”—back in January of the same year, this organisation was declared “undesirable.”

  • From 2011 to 2021, Maksim Reznik was a deputy of St Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly. In June 2021, the day after the start of the campaign for the Assembly elections, Reznik was detained on criminal charges of purchasing drugs (Part 1, Article 228 of the Criminal Code). Shortly afterwards, he announced he was ending his campaign.
  • Reznik was accused of buying 18 grams of a plant-based drug from a relative. The politician denied the charges. The testimony against him was also given by the same relative—at the time the case was opened, he was in pre-trial detention. Later, he said he gave the testimony under pressure from law enforcement. In April 2022, Reznik was sentenced to five months in an open-type penal colony, but was immediately released as time spent under house arrest was counted.
  • In autumn 2022, Reznik left Russia. He reported that he had received information about the possibility of new persecution shortly before leaving.