Switch Language

Oleg Savvin, an activist from Kaliningrad, is once again being sent to a psychiatric hospital after being charged under the article on military “fakes” (clause “d” part 2 article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). His lawyer, Alexander Chauzov, told OVD-Info.

On 19 September, the Leningradsky District Court of Kaliningrad, which will consider the case on its merits, placed the activist back in a general psychiatric ward for three months.

Three days prior to this, Savvin had been released from the hospital.

In July, based on a forensic psychiatric evaluation, the court found the activist not criminally responsible and temporarily transferred him from the remand centre to the Psychiatric Hospital of Kaliningrad Oblast. The term of this measure was set to expire on 14 September, but Savvin was released only on 16 September.

Earlier, while still in the remand centre, the activist spoke about pains in his heart and the poor conditions of detention:

“Their food is not real food; I get poisoned every other day. The censor alters letters at their discretion. If you receive a strange letter from me, know that I didn’t write it. My petitions are not accepted, being called personal correspondence. Everything is completely ignored. If in 2015 at least a doctor would make a token visit, now there’s just silence. I’m losing my mind there, having nightmares every night.”

Savvin was sent to the remand centre on 20 March. The day before, he was charged with spreading “fakes” about the Russian army (clause “d” part 2 article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), over an anti-war comment on VKontakte. In his post, Savvin called the invasion of Ukraine inhumane, and described the actions of the Russian military as crimes against humanity and planet Earth.

“By brutally killing people, causing suffering, countless personal and family tragedies, destroying cities, their infrastructure, lifelines and landmarks, they also inflict large-scale harm to ecology, animals and plants, become the reason for upcoming famine for people living in other parts of the world, and openly threaten to use the nuclear arsenal. (Besides the fact that they were already digging trenches, capturing facilities, and waging fighting in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, let’s not forget about Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.) Do those calling to 'just drop one' even realise what a nuclear explosion (in orc-speak, a 'bang'—editor’s note), radioactive contamination of an area, and what its consequences are?” the activist wrote.

The news item has corrected a mistaken statement that the court began consideration of the case on its merits. As of publication, the court had not yet begun to examine the case on its merits.

  • In March 2014, during the days of the annexation of Crimea, a German flag was hung on the Federal Security Service (FSB) building in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. Soon after, officers detained local residents Oleg Savvin and Mikhail Feldman, as well as Dmitry Fonarev from Moscow, for this protest. After a series of so-called “carousel arrests”, the activists were charged with criminal hooliganism (part 2 article 213 of the Criminal Code). All three were sent to the remand centre for the investigation. In June 2015, the court sentenced Savvin and Fonarev each to 1 year and 1 month of imprisonment, and Feldman to 1 year, 1 month and 23 days. The activists were released immediately after the verdict was announced.