In St. Petersburg, at the Moskovsky railway station, a member of the city's Legislative Assembly from the Communist Party, Ivan Apostolevsky, was detained, reported 47News.
State agencies, citing a source in law enforcement, wrote that a protocol was drawn up against Apostolevsky for promoting the symbols of an extremist organization due to a post supporting Alexei Navalny, published in 2017.
Later, this was confirmed to a 47News journalist by Apostolevsky himself. He linked the detention to his fight against landfills and waste sites, as well as his participation in the gubernatorial election campaign. The deputy actively supports the potential candidate from the Communist Party, Larisa Mukhina.
Apostolevsky also stated that he does not post any materials 'neither about extremism nor about Navalny'.
Meanwhile, on Apostolevsky's page on 'VKontakte', there is indeed a post mentioning Navalny from 2017. It talks about an investigation initiated by the Communist Party into the facts presented in the film 'He's Not Dimon to You. The Secret Empire of Dmitry Medvedev'. The video attached to the post has already been deleted.
Protocols for displaying photos of Navalny and logos of organizations associated with him, equated to extremist symbols, continue to be drawn up even after the politician's death. Courts often impose administrative arrests for such offenses.
In May, former coordinator of the St. Petersburg headquarters, Boris Nadezhda Darya Heikinen, was arrested for eight days for a photo of Navalny, and in June, St. Petersburg resident Yegor Shramko was placed under administrative arrest.
* Included in the list of 'terrorists and extremists'.