Russian students pay expensive price for political protests

Narizny wasn't stopped, but the police confiscated his phone.

Three days later, the police searched her home.

Narizny admits he wrote the graphite, calling Russian leader Vladimir Putin “heen” on the walls of a regional administration building.

After a while, prosecutors have classified this act as <x0 actions conducted by a group of people, motivated on political, ideological, racial, nationalist or religious hatred”.

If convicted, he could face three years in prison.

After presenting the criminal indictment, Narizny was contacted by the school administration. Officials have pressured him to give up school.

They've told me we don't need criminals and other stuff”, Narizny told Radio Free Europe.

“It'll be better for you to walk away by your own will”

Now he is part of the night school while awaiting trial.

During the first wave of protests, in support of Navajo and Putin's government, in January and February, Russian officials and state-controlled media, noting the mainly movement of young people alike have repeatedly accused the opposition of their appeal.

It is absolutely unacceptable to push minors before”, Putin said.

This is what terrorists do”.

A state television moderator, Dmitry Kiseliov, has been positioned against the opposition on his show, accusing them of <x0... political pedophilias like political pedophiles”.

However, opposition supporters have been quick to create a material that, through the celebration, represented Kiseljov's head in the bodies of small children, taking part in events organised by the ruling party, United Russia.

Weeks since protests were held, local officials in Russia have oppressed young people not only children who have participated in them. Many have found themselves facing expulsions from their educational institutions, on serious criminal charges, or like the Narizny case, with both.

Busy in pressure following protests at Vologists has also been 17-year-old Ilija Yelshin. Self-declared weak-school student Spassky, Yelshin has spent the greatest time working on his YouTube channel, presenting himself to some situations, including him standing for more than six hours at temperatures -20 degrees Celsius, wearing only short sleeve T-shirts.

“

In January, as Navally was preparing for return from Germany, where he spent several weeks recovering from poisoning with nervous agents, Ylshin has begun to increase political restraint on his channel, including conducting surveys with other young people, asking whether they support Navajo or Putin.

Navalny either believes the attack on him was carried out by Federal Security Service agents at Putin's order.

On January 23rd, he published a material on the YouTube social network from the Navajo protest in Vologists.

I started to worry about what was happening in Russia right now. Things went wrong”, he told Radio Free Europe.

And I started seeing some things. Russia's problems, Putin...”

Although teachers have told students about the “threat of protests, before they were held, nothing happened to Yelshin during the protests.

The next day, two policemen have gone home and warned him that he was the target of criminal investigations. Shortly thereafter, he was summoned to be interrogated by the Regional Prosecutor's Office.

You don't understand that you're putting your life in danger by getting involved in this?

You're being used. You don't understand how they're using you”.

“And have you thought about how you're being used? ”, recall Yelshin's statements.

Navajo supporters have called for another protest on January 31st. Just before that date, Yelshin posted a video that he said: “If you wish to quit, exit. But think over a few times before you decide not to come out of<x1.

According to Yelshin's lawyer, Sergei Tikhonov, the principal of Yelshin's school, has been called by police to report that material, and recently he has started to have problems.

The director of Spassky High School, Lyudmila Guseva, has declined to be interviewed for this article.

Politicians from Vlogda Yevgeny Domozhirov, who is a member of the Central Council of the Navy Progress Party, have published a photo of Guseva's call police report on January 29th.

He has accused Guseva of hypocrisy of warning students not to get involved in politics, and at the same time, by accepting the United Russia party into the school he heads.

“It's enough to look at the school page and see the continued relocations of the school, the thieves' party, as well as the school organisation” wrote Domozirov.

“will get worse”

Yelshin has been detained at the January 31st protests. Police have considered it “organiser” of the protest. He was fined $260 for this work and on 130 dollars for participating in the second protest.

In addition, his parents have been fined $1.30 for “failure to perform parental obligations”.

In a few days, Yelsin like Narizny was questioned by the school administration and pressured to give up.

And, of course, we're not forcing you for anything, but it'd be better if you left”, recall Ylshin the statement that was told him.

They told me: You know you'll only get worse.

Since he left school, Yelshi said he had more time to work on his YouTube channel.

Among other things, he posted a material on how “was removed from school”.

I'm not in student” now, he said.

I don't study anywhere. In short, I'm a beggar”.

In Russia's southern town of Astrakhan, 22-year-old Vera Inozemtseva and two other students have been expelled from the Astrakham State University for participating in the Navajo protests in that city on January 23rd. She has said that after the protests, “was kidnapped” by police officials who took his phone and used it to post incriminating messages to her accounts on social networks.

“I was sent from room to room”, she said while describing the time spent in prison and “I was finally sent to a room and an official from the E Centre has come”.

Centre E is part of the Interior Ministry department, responsible for combating extremism.

Pressure of Protests in Russia After the Punishment of Navajo

This centre has been highly criticised for suppressing peaceful political dissidents.

I tried to find the legal basis for this conversation and I asked where my phone was left, but the official didn't answer my questions and he just asked me why I don't love Putin”, she added.

She has said she has returned home from three men disguised in a police vehicle without police signs.

One of them asked, “Now you're gonna have a good attitude, right?”

I have replied that I will complain to the Prosecutor's Office”, she said.

As soon as men have left in masks, two uniformed police officials have approached her and asked her to join.

“

I thought I was losing my mind or I was in the middle of an anxiety”, she said.

In the end, it has been fined 10,000 rubles for participating in the protest.

She has filed complaints with prosecutors on 24 January, but the Detective Committee has refused to launch investigations.

“We are appealing rejection”, she has said.

In March, a local court has rejected Inzemtseva's appeal against her expulsion from the university.

“Now we are preparing for the next appeal”, Inzemtseva said, who has been working on a master-level topic in the field of political science before being expelled, told Radio Free Europe.

I am ready to go to the Supreme Court and to the European Court for Human Rights”.

But I want to win the case against the university here in Russia and not at the European Court”, she added.

I want to see you punish the people who kidnapped me on January 23,”

I don't want to give up”, she said among other things.

I quit, for what? This cannot even be called activism. I do what I do. But if I stop acting, I'll be an indifferent person. And although Russia does not love me, I cannot be indifferent”.