Sergei Mikhailov, a regular participant of the Free Russia Forum, was detained in the Moscow region. According to available information, he is charged with Part 2 of Art. 207.3. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” He faces 5 to 10 years in prison.
We express our categorical protest against the arrest of our comrade and demand his immediate release. The new article of the Criminal Code of Putin’s Russia, applied to him, is aimed at suppressing any criticism of the war unleashed by the Russian dictator against Ukraine and preventing the dissemination of truthful information about this war. The Putin regime is afraid of the truth and is fighting it.
The criminal prosecution of Sergei Mikhailov is part of Putin’s repression of Russian society, a direct continuation of a long-standing policy of intimidating Russian citizens who are trying to exercise their civil rights, including the right to freely disseminate information.
We state directly that we will identify all those who will take part in the persecution of Sergei, and will include them in our Putin’s List, which will later be transferred to the authorities of the countries of the Free World to include all these people in the sanctions lists. We will compile dossiers on those executioners of the Putin regime who will take part in the persecution of Sergei to record their data and the crimes they committed, so that in the future, after the fall of the Putin regime, all these people can be held accountable for complicity in political repression.
It is still possible to avoid this responsibility by refusing to participate in political repressions. Refuse to persecute Russian citizens who spread the truth about the war, get out of service, or resign from official posts, and then you can avoid responsibility in the future!
Free Russia Forum,
April 14, 2022
