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On 3 November, the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow found the women guilty of disobeying the police, lawyer Oskar Cherdzhiev reported in his Instagram stories.
According to friends of the detainees who spoke with OVD-Info, the three are Oksana Divisenko, Olga Skorokhodova and Natalya Shchelokova. Divisenko held a solo protest outside the Moscow police headquarters, and Skorokhodova protested by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The lawyer added that the women are also being charged with violating rules on holding public gatherings. The court will consider these cases on 19 November.
On 4 November, outside the Prosecutor General’s Office, another supporter of Lada-Rus, activist Konstantin Bessarabenko from Belgorod (a city in western Russia), was detained. He was brought to the Tverskoy District Court this morning. He is also charged with disobeying the police.
The protests followed a new search of Lada-Rus’s home (Lada-Rus herself is abroad).
An earlier statement that the search took place in a flat has been corrected in this story.
- Svetlana Lada-Rus (Peunova) considers herself a “citizen of the USSR.” She founded the Will party, which was dissolved in 2016 after being accused of extremist activities. She also set up a folk medicine centre called “Svetlana Peunova’s Academy of Development.” Lada-Rus is a supporter of a range of conspiracy theories, including about an invasion of reptilians on earth. In addition, her followers adhere to “citizens of the USSR” ideas.
- In Russia, she faces criminal cases for fraud, causing intentional serious harm to health, and creating a religious association that has harmed citizens’ health. According to investigators, she unlawfully appropriated an apartment and car belonging to her followers and exerted psychological pressure on those wishing to leave the “Academy of Development.” Lada-Rus left the country and is wanted internationally.