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Igor Yakunichev, a resident of Pangody settlement in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (a large region in northern Russia), has spoken about threats made against him by employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). Mediazona reports on this.

A case was opened against Yakunichev at the end of March 2023. He was charged with spreading “war fake news” (paragraph “d,” part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), inciting terrorism (part 2, article 205.2 of the Criminal Code), repeated “discrediting” of the Russian military (part 1, article 280.3 of the Criminal Code), and calls against state security (paragraph “v,” part 2, article 280.4 of the Criminal Code). The charges were based on anti-war videos he posted on VKontakte.

The man said that since April he has been in a single cell in a special unit. Before that, he was held in the punishment cell.

“[They] told me: I’m considered a threat. And if I don’t calm down, they’ll start moving me around the whole Sverdlovsk oblast,” Yakunichev said.

According to him, the administration of pre-trial detention centre No. 5 in Yekaterinburg (a major city in the Urals) does not pass on his mother’s letters or the medication he needs to take following a spinal injury he suffered nine years ago. At that time, Yakunichev crushed two vertebrae and underwent surgery.

He submitted several complaints to the prosecutor’s office. In response, the agency stated that parcels with medication had been redirected for storage to the medical unit (MSCh) No. 66 of the FSIN of Russia. Medical staff allegedly issue these medicines to Yakunichev. He denies receiving them.

The man also reported during a court hearing that the senior FSIN officer at pre-trial centre No. 5 had threatened him with “sexual violence” and “expressed their dissatisfaction with [his] complaints” about the conditions in detention. Currently, in the Chkalovsky District Court in Yekaterinburg, two lawsuits have been registered from the defendant, both complaining about detention conditions. The man maintains that the pre-trial centre administration is making it difficult to submit his complaints to the court.

“The [senior FSIN officer] doesn’t like that I’m trying to reassert my rights regarding my conditions in detention and, among other things, the medication I am not being given. I have already filed a fourth administrative claim, and he [the FSIN employee] leaves them without action—basically freezes them. He communicates his position to me in an aggressive manner. And he does not allow me to submit anything in writing,” the defendant said, asking the prosecutor to conduct an investigation.

Later, at the 2 July hearing, Yakunichev claimed that the FSIN’s internal security department “is now trying to cover for this head operations officer.”

“And he is trying to wriggle out of it, saying he never threatened [me], that nothing like that happened,” the man added.

  • Igor Yakunichev is the author of the YouTube channel “Infinity Is Not the Limit”. According to the channel description, it is dedicated to “exposing violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation by the authorities.”
  • The case against Yakunichev is based on anti-war videos he published on his VKontakte page, with titles including: “Current Time. Bucha and the Witness in Spain,” “How the Freedom of Russia Legion Fights—a report by Sergey Loyko from Bakhmut,” “The Rebel Attack on Belgorod Region Continues,” “The ‘Russkiy Mir’ Paper Pusher,” and others. Memorial has recognised the Yamal resident as a political prisoner.
  • In summer 2022, he was also fined 30,000 roubles (US$340) under the article on “discrediting” the army (article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences) over a video about a memorial with a T-54 tank in his home settlement. The activist’s relative said that an unknown person drew the letter Z on the tank, and Yakunichev stated on camera that this violates the law on the protection of cultural heritage sites.