Dmitry Bogatov

Bogatov was detained on 6 April 2017 on suspicion of calling for mass riots (part 3 of article 212 of the Criminal Code). On 7 April, the Presnensky District Court refused to place Bogatov in a pre-trial detention centre despite the investigation's request and elected a preventive measure against him in the form of a written undertaking not to leave, due to the fact that part 3 of article 212 of the Criminal Code is considered a crime of minor gravity. However, Bogatov was not released from the court, but was again taken to the Investigative Committee, where on the night of 8 April he was reclassified to a more serious charge - calls for terrorist activity (part 2 of article 205.5 of the Criminal Code) and preparation for the organisation of mass riots (part 1 of article 212 with the use of article 30 of the Criminal Code). On 10 April the same Presnensky court arrested Bogatov for two months. The reason for the prosecution of the mathematician was the fact that aggressive messages published on the site sysadmins.ru from an account under the nickname "Airat Bashirov" were sent from the IP-address of Bogatov's computer. Bogatov is a principle supporter of free software distribution and the operator of the Tor network's output communication node. His IP could be randomly assigned to a user from anywhere in the world. Meduza journalists wrote to "Airat Bashirov" already after Bogatov's placement in custody, and he replied to them, assuring them that Bogatov had nothing to do with the published texts. On 24 July 2017, Bogatov was transferred under house arrest. On 31 January 2018, he was transferred on his own recognisance. In May 2018, it became known that the case against Bogatov was terminated.