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Sofia Chepik, a member of the “Scarlet Swan” community which had called for protests against internet blocks, has left the country, she told Verstka.
“I feel better than ever. I feel safe, for the first time in a long while I feel calm and at ease. There’s no fear, no anxiety,” said 20-year-old Chepik.
According to her, she began thinking about leaving around a month ago. On 20 April, she was arrested for 15 days under an administrative petty hooliganism charge (Art. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The case materials alleged that Chepik “used foul language in public places” and “behaved insultingly” towards citizens.
A few days after her arrest, the FSB reported the detention of seven people in connection with a case concerning planned attacks on Roskomnadzor officials. One person was killed during detention. The FSB published a video in which two of those detained state they were planning attacks; another two speak about their activity in a chat group. The fifth person in the video is Chepik—she says she was moderating a chat where officials’ personal data were published. Later, she told journalists she was a participant, not a moderator, in the chat.
After being released from the detention facility, Chepik said that FSB officers forced her to appear in this video and recite a script.
“What I said on the video was all a memorised script they told me to say on camera. I didn’t even know what I was saying. They said it would supposedly help me. I was so stressed I couldn’t say that I wouldn’t talk without a lawyer,” she told RusNews.
Chepik clarified to SOTAvision that law enforcement officers had come to her home with a search warrant related to another person. The outlets she spoke to have not mentioned the date of the law enforcement visit.
“They gave me a slip of paper saying that a certain Prokopyev R. R. had stored weapons at his place. How I was linked to that—I still don’t understand,” Chepik says.
“There were threats that I could face criminal charges. They read out news reports about terrorism to me, and I had no idea what they were talking about. <…> When I arrived at the FSB office on Lubyanka and asked about this supposed terrorism, everyone just shrugged their shoulders and said ‘we don’t know.’ [About the other detainees] they told me that one had been neutralised. I don’t know anything else,” she added.
- The “Scarlet Swan” Telegram channel and chat appeared in March this year. They called for protests against blocks on the internet and messengers. In particular, they announced a protest for 29 March. In the days leading up to this, members of the community began to be detained. Two of them left Russia on the eve of the planned protests.