The case of the “Mayakovsky Readings”

On 25 September 2022, police detained seven participants in the 'Mayakovsky Readings' on administrative charges; the event was declared 'anti-mobilisation' that day. The organisers made this move as a protest against the recently announced 'partial' mobilisation of Russians as part of the war against Ukraine.

The next morning, law enforcement burst into the flat where three activists were staying: Aleksandr Menyukov, poet Artyom Kamardin, and his girlfriend Alexandra Popova. Popova reported that she and Kamardin were tortured.

After the search, law enforcement published a video in which Kamardin, kneeling, 'apologised' for a couplet he had recited at the 'Mayakovsky Readings': “Glory to Kyivan Rus, Novorossiya—suck it.” Doctors refused to admit Kamardin to hospital, despite ambulance staff diagnosing him in his lawyer’s presence with a concussion, a closed head injury, a bruised chest, and multiple facial abrasions.

That same day, it emerged that a criminal case had been opened against Kamardin and two other participants in the 'anti-mobilisation' readings—Nikolai Dayneko and Egor Shtovba—on charges of inciting hatred or enmity with the threat of violence (para. “a,” part 2, article 282 of the Criminal Code). Investigators claimed they incited hatred towards “volunteer armed groups of the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics.” On 28 September, the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow remanded them in custody.

In March 2023, Dayneko, Shtovba and Kamardin were charged with making calls for anti-state activity (part 3, article 280.4 of the Criminal Code). In May, Dayneko was sentenced to four years in a penal colony after he agreed a pre-trial deal with the investigation.

Six months later, sentences were handed down to Kamardin and Shtovba as well: they were given seven and five and a half years in a penal colony respectively.