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The Soviet District Court of Krasnodar has found a political scientist guilty of evading the obligations of a “foreign agent” (Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code). OVD-Info was told this by the court.

Savva was also fined 70,000 rubles (approx. US$750). The sentence was issued taking into account the penalty imposed in the political scientist’s previous case.

The judge heard the case in a single hearing, held on 21 January. Normally, according to the jurisdiction, cases under Part 2 of Article 330.1 of the Criminal Code are handled by magistrates. In the case of an appeal, the sentence may be overturned due to incorrect jurisdiction.

The political scientist was added to the list of “foreign agents” in October 2023. After that, he was repeatedly fined in administrative cases for violations of the “foreign agent” legislation (Article 19.34 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

Since 2015, Savva has lived in Ukraine, where he has been granted refugee status.

  • In 2014, Savva was given a three-year suspended sentence in a fraud case (Article 159 of the Criminal Code). Law enforcement accused him of embezzling 366,000 rubles (approx. US$4,000) allocated from the budget for sociological research on attitudes towards migrants, as well as receiving payments for a course of lectures at Kuban State University that he allegedly did not deliver.
  • Human rights defenders recognised the prosecution as politically motivated. They noted that Savva had investigated violations during checks on NGOs in Krasnodar Krai—a region in southern Russia near the Black Sea. Because of this case, Savva spent around eight months in a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO).
  • After the political scientist left Russia, his suspended sentence was replaced with a real prison term, and a new fraud case was opened against him. This time, he was accused of embezzling 150,000 rubles (approx. US$1,650) allocated from the regional budget to his training centre “Levdos” for hosting seminars. Law enforcement claimed that the events were only partly held, and that some lecturers, who according to documents were paid fees, had not actually delivered lectures or received any money.