A search was carried out in the local branch of VOOPIiK in Ryazan following publications about arson attacks on historic houses.

On 5 August, security forces in Ryazan carried out a search at the registered address of the local branch of VOOPIiK following publications linking the governor to the destruction of historic houses. This information was posted in the “VOOPIiK Ryazan” group on VKontakte.

In reality, the search took place at the residence of Andrey Petrutsky, chair of the Ryazan branch of VOOPIiK, where the organisation is also registered. The investigative actions were related to a criminal case on defamation (Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code).

According to the search warrant, which was published by Igor Kochetkov, deputy chair of the Ryazan VOOPIiK, the case was initiated in connection with three posts made in the organisation’s VKontakte group. In all three instances, the court named the local developer “Zelyony Sad—Ryabinovye Grozdya” as the injured party.

“According to expert conclusion No. 995 of 10.07.2025, the submitted text entitled ‘A RALLY demanding the RESIGNATION of Governor Malkov APPROVED’ <…> contains assertions that express facts concerning or describing the circumstances related to ‘Zelyony Sad—Ryabinovye Grozdya’ LLC, giving a negative assessment of their real-world activities: construction of multi-storey buildings on Meditsinskaya Street in violation of the law,” reads the court decision regarding one of the publications.

In the post mentioned, the rally’s declared aims included, among others, the resignation of Ryazan Oblast Governor Pavel Malkov, the preservation of cultural heritage, and the prevention of illegal construction in the city.

Speaking to OVD-Info, Igor Kochetkov said the VOOPIiK search was carried out to identify who was behind the posts in question. Some of Petrutsky’s equipment was confiscated for this purpose.

Kochetkov also suggested that the immediate trigger for the investigation was a series of recent posts on the Ryazan VOOPIiK VKontakte page about the destruction of historic houses in the city centre. These publications assign responsibility for the situation in the region to the governor.

Recently in Ryazan, a major city in central Russia, six architecturally significant urban structures were demolished, and two such sites were set on fire by unknown individuals. Just on 2 August, the “Bank House,” a monument of wooden architecture dating back to the late nineteenth century, burned down in the city centre.

“With the arrival of Governor Pavel Malkov, Ryazan has gone back to the gangster 1990s, when criminal developers cleared sites in the city’s historic centre by arson. The governor, Pavel Malkov, has not said A SINGLE WORD about the mass demolition and arson of wooden houses sweeping Ryazan this summer (2025),” commented the Ryazan VOOPIiK group on news of the burned-down house.

Members of VOOPIiK have appealed to the prosecutor’s office, demanding a criminal case be opened under the law against destruction of cultural heritage sites (Article 243 of the Criminal Code). Kochetkov told OVD-Info that after the fire, he came to the Bank House and collected the surviving remnants to donate them to the local museum.

“We have been instructed to pass objects of our culture to the next generation, to preserve material evidence of how people used to live, for this is proof of the existence of a given era,” Kochetkov told OVD-Info. “But before our very eyes the evidence of the greatness of past eras is being destroyed. We have lost our sense of moral culture. We need to try to preserve it, so that it becomes our anchor.”

• The Ryazan VOOPIiK team has actively fought for many years against construction and destruction in the city’s historic centre. Developers, in turn, file lawsuits against activists to protect their business reputation. In June, the developer “Zelyony Sad” filed eight such lawsuits against VOOPIiK. In December 2022, unknown individuals poured acid on a VOOPIiK supporter’s car after they reported illegal construction to the Investigative Committee.
• Currently, VOOPIiK activists are trying through the courts to overturn the development of the former Shpalozavod site in Ryazan. On the day after the search at the VOOPIiK address, the court is scheduled to consider an appeal challenging the legality of this development.