A defendant in the “Vesna” case has been sent to solitary confinement, with a ban on reading books and receiving parcels.

Pavel Sinelnikov, a defendant in the “Vesna” case accused of organising and participating in an “extremist” community (Parts 1 and 2 of Article 282.1 of the Russian Criminal Code), has been sent to solitary confinement in Pretrial Detention Centre No. 1 in St Petersburg for 15 days. This was reported by his support group’s channel.

News that Sinelnikov had received 15 days in solitary emerged last week. According to the support group, the young man will be kept in a cell alone and “in even harsher conditions”: without a window, letters, or personal belongings.

“During the day and until lights out, you are not allowed to lie on the bed—it is fastened to the wall in the morning. It is forbidden to read books, receive parcels, or order food from the shop. In practice, these are torture-like conditions where a person is left alone with concrete walls,” Sinelnikov’s support group reported.

The criminal case against the Vesna youth movement involves six defendants: former activists from St Petersburg Yevgeny Zateyev and Valentin Khoroshenin, Vasily Neustroev (a member of the St Petersburg regional council of the Yabloko party and local TIK on the party’s behalf), Jan Ksenzhepolsky, an activist from Tver (a major city north of Moscow), as well as Pavel Sinelnikov and Anna Arkhipova. All of them were detained after mass raids on 6 June 2023 and taken to Moscow. Two days later, a court remanded the defendants in custody.

The criminal case is based on Vesna’s social media posts from 2022. However, Neustroev is not actually connected with the movement.

Ksenzhepolsky and Arkhipova face four charges: spreading military “fakes” as a group motivated by hatred (sub-paragraphs “b” and “d” of Part 2, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), public incitement to actions against state security by an organised group (Part 3, Article 280.4), organising the activities of an extremist community (Part 1, Article 282.1), and disseminating disrespectful information about days of military glory as a group (Part 4, Article 354.1).

Neustroev faces these same charges as well as two others: incitement to mass disorder (Part 1.1, Article 212) and creating a non-profit organisation encroaching on the individual and rights of citizens (Part 2, Article 239).

Zateyev and Khoroshenin are accused of organising activities of an extremist community (Part 1, Article 282.1) and spreading disrespectful information about days of military glory as a group (Part 4, Article 354.1).

In June 2024, the case began to be heard by the St Petersburg City Court. In early July this year, Valentin Khoroshenin pleaded fully guilty and gave a confession. He stated that an “extremist community is very clearly visible” in Vesna’s activities and called the movement a “Navalny incubator,” since many participants were connected with FBK structures.

• The Vesna youth movement was founded in St Petersburg in 2013 and later appeared in other regions of Russia. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the movement’s activists have actively participated in anti-war demonstrations and announced mass protests against “partial” mobilisation. In October 2022 the group was listed as a “foreign agent,” and in December a court upheld a claim declaring Vesna an “extremist” organisation.
• In total, 21 people are implicated in the Vesna case; some of them were declared wanted in summer 2023. All the defendants were listed in the register of “terrorists and extremists.”