Pavel Verbitsky

A resident of Uray, a pensioner and former military officer, was nominated by the CPRF for the local Duma elections. In September 2022, they came to him with a seizure order. He told OVD-Info that the investigative actions were related to the comments that had already got him fined under the article on discrediting the army of the Russian Federation (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). In these comments, according to the court's version of the administrative case, Verbitsky compared the Russian military to orcs and fascists, and the Z symbol to the inscription on a street toilet. He later told Republic that before the seizure he received a phone call saying that someone had hit his car. When Verbitsky went outside, he was detained and placed face down in the asphalt. After the seizure, he was taken to the Investigative Committee, where they promised that they would not bring a criminal case. He left for a week to visit relatives in the Altai Territory, and on the way back to Tyumen he was detained again and taken to the FSB department. There, Verbitsky was told that a criminal case had been opened against him because of various comments against the war, including a poem he had republished in the "Black Urai" group on VKontakte. After interrogation, he was released on his own recognisance. Verbitsky left Russia.