Report on human rights violations in Ingria
September 5: Detention of a St. Petersburg woman for a comment about the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack
On September 5, information appeared about the detention of a St. Petersburg resident for a comment online regarding the terrorist attack carried out at Crocus City Hall. The woman was arrested and a case was opened against her under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on “Public justification of terrorism.” According to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg, the woman committed the “illegal act” on March 22, 2024, and her detention was carried out with police force support. The first ruling in a similar case was issued against a Tajik citizen in March 2026; the defendant was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
September 17: Court upholds 7-year prison sentence for supporting Ukraine in internet
On September 28, 2026, the Military Appeals Court upheld the sentence under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation against Valentin Gulimov. The man was detained a year ago for comments online in support of Ukraine, which were regarded as public calls for terrorist activity, as well as justification and propaganda of terrorism on the internet.
The investigation recorded comments posted under posts on the Telegram social network, attributing them to Gulimov’s “creative work”:
— “Azov are great guys, hit and burn this scum, the occupiers will return home only in body bags” (September 12, 2023);
— “Burn this embassy to hell, together with the staff!” (September 19, 2023);
— “The guys from Azov are great! Take care of yourselves! Glory to Ukraine!” (September 25, 2024);
— “Azov are great guys!” (November 21, 2024).
Thus, the sentence of 7 years in a general-regime colony handed down by the 1st Western District Military Court remained unchanged.
https://memopzk.org/figurant/gulimov-valentin-viktorovich
September 18: Arrest of a St. Petersburg resident for reposting a post about election control
The Krasnogvardeysky District Court of St. Petersburg found the detained St. Petersburg resident, Oleg Petrov, guilty under a protocol on the display of prohibited symbols. The man was detained for 10 days and found guilty under Part 1 of Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code.
The reason was the posting of a 2021 post with the “Red Control” initiative of one of the pro-government parties of the Russian Federation. The project envisaged “facilitating training processes and appointing public observers at elections.”
“Join the public control team and help ensure openness, legality and honest vote counting,” the booklet read.
The basis for Petrov’s detention was the links on Petrov’s page. According to the administrative case materials, on August 7, 2026, a senior police operative, having found Petrov’s internet page on the VKontakte social network and navigated to it, discovered there “information resources prohibited as of today.”
Judging by everything, this refers to links to Instagram and Facebook, which, as Petrov stated, he simply forgot to delete.
https://zona.media/news/2026/09/18/control
https://ovd.info/express-news/2026/09/18/peterburzhca-arestovali-na-10-sutok-iz-za-postov-o-proekte-kprf-dlya
Beauty blogger from St. Petersburg detained for displaying prohibited symbols right before the elections
A beauty blogger from St. Petersburg, Rada Russkikh, was detained on the eve of the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation (GD RF).
The Leninsky District Court of St. Petersburg imposed one day of administrative arrest on Russkikh under Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code (display of extremist symbols).
The reason for the arrest was a post on Rada’s social media page. There, “symbols of the satanism movement,” recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation, were discerned.
According to Rada herself, they wanted to keep her in the detention center for all three days of voting in the GD RF, but she managed to get out after a day spent in the police station. “There was a blockbuster, they didn’t hit hard, and I also managed to ‘terrorize’ everyone,” the blogger said.
In 2024, Rada Russkikh applied as a self-nominated candidate for president but did not gather the required votes.
https://tass.ru/proisshestviya/28122979
September 19: The press service of “Yabloko” reported the detention of an observer from the party sent to polling station No. 1919.
According to the party’s press service, an observer from the “Yabloko” candidate for the State Duma, Olga Yurkevich (215th, North-Western electoral district), was detained by police right at the polling station. The observer arrived at the polling station at 07:45, but was accused by the chair of the commission of trying to “disrupt the elections,” and she called the police. During the detention, police used force against the observer, as a result of which the latter lost consciousness.
After the rough detention, the party’s observer was taken to police department No. 86, where a report was drawn up against him for “disobedience to police demands” and Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code was charged.
https://t.me/yabloko_press/3745
September 20: The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg upheld a claim on an administrative violation from precinct election commission No. 1778 against Alisa Belyaeva
The court regarded the conduct of photo and video filming at the polling station by Belyaeva, acting as a member of the PEC, as a violation of Russian legislation, and the removal of the citizen from the voting premises as lawful.
Schoolgirl detained for arson of police cars
A 15-year-old teenage girl was detained while attempting to set fire to police cars near the MVD department at 65 Toreza Avenue. Bottles with flammable liquid were found in the detainee’s bag.
It is reported that the girl had already committed a similar arson of two police cars at 79 Marata Street.
It should be noted that the general militarization of children in Russian schools leads to increased aggression and radicalizes teenager`s dissent. At the same time, the punishments imposed on children for acts of protest or disorderly conduct can be excessively harsh—especially when contrasted with the “blanket forgiveness” often granted to veterans of the “special military operation.”
https://www.fontanka.ru/2026/09/20/76652664
https://www.spb.kp.ru/online/news/7181876
Voting and recorded discrepancies in the State Duma elections
The State Duma and Legislative Assembly elections held from September 18 to 20, 2026, left behind sealed safes with ballots.
However, on the night of September 19 and 20, observers recorded the movement of these seals and ballots.
Polling station No. 60 — a change in the location of the seal on the cabinet. A journalist from the Fontanka publication who arrived at the voting site also testified to discrepancies between the photo of the original seal and the one present the next day.
PEC No. 1288 (school No. 355) on Blagodatnaya Street — a candidate from “A Just Russia” and a commission member from “Yabloko” recognized a visually changed number of ballots in the urn.
PEC No. 1285 (school No. 371) — observers discovered a change in the position of the ballots over the past night.
PEC No. 1280 on Moskovsky Avenue (lyceum No. 373) — observers also suspect that the number of ballots changed overnight.
At the same time, on September 19, observers recorded gross discrepancies between visitors to polling stations and the number of people who voted. For example, at PEC No. 769, over the whole day the observer counted 387 people who came to vote at the station, but after counting the ballots in the safe, the observer was given a report with figures of 936 votes. Mass removal of commission members and observers from the elections was also recorded; on September 20 alone there were more than a dozen of them.
https://www.fontanka.ru/2026/09/20/76652469
https://www.fontanka.ru/2026/09/19/76652055
September 21: violation and threats at polling station No. 122 in St. Petersburg
Citing RusNews, a violation is reported at polling station No. 122 in St. Petersburg against an independent commission member.
In response to the independent observer’s request to check turnout and provide access to the voter books, the TIK (territorial election commission) employees rudely refused, and for video recording the violations they threatened to “give her a smack” and arrest her, trying to snatch the phone from her hands.
“You almost lunged at me. You are violating the law, not I,” the observer stated.
https://t.me/rusnews/91661 (video)
https://t.me/ovdinfolive/43727
September 22: City Election Commission approves election results without giving “Yabloko” votes
On September 22, 2026, information appeared on the official website of the “Yabloko” party about the elections having taken place without the party itself. According to the party’s statement, the City Election Commission approved falsifications, depriving St. Petersburg of voters’ votes for peace and freedom.
“During the voting days, everything was done to prevent independent observation that would hinder falsifications. In St. Petersburg we have seen violations more than once, but this time they surpassed all previous ones.
Under these conditions, the announced ‘election results’ have little in common with the real will of St. Petersburg residents.”
Despite all the obstacles created against the “Yabloko” party, when “they refused to air the clips due to them, did not approve pickets…”, according to the “Yabloko” members, they continued to work and more than half of the candidates still had the opportunity to cast a vote for peace and freedom.
https://www.yabloko.ru/regnews/Spb/2026/09/22
September 24: programmer from St. Petersburg fined for a link to the Ukrainian resource United24 on GitHub
On July 30, by a ruling of the Kamchatka City Court, a fine of 800 thousand rubles was imposed on St. Petersburg programmer Mikhail Gordeev.
The reason for the charge was a post published by Mikhail on GitHub, made by him in English in 2022.
At that time, the man condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and posted a link to the crowdfunding platform United24.
Despite the fact that Gordeev deleted the post at the end of 2025, he is accused of calls against the security of the state via the internet motivated by hatred (points “v” and “d” of Part 2 of Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code).
“The thoughts were to [donate] to humanitarian aid, but, as far as is known, they don’t only collect for humanitarian aid there,” Gordeev told Mediazona.
At the beginning of 2026, a search was conducted at Gordeev’s home in St. Petersburg, after which security forces put him before a choice: “Either I am sent by convoy to Kamchatka, or I go voluntarily together with them.”
The reasons why the investigation was conducted in Kamchatka are unknown to Gordeev, but the man was sent to a pre-trial detention center for a week, and then had to rent housing at his own expense (his relatives helped him rent a place) in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky until the execution of the punishment in his case.
https://zona.media/news/2026/09/24/grdv
September 29: arrest of the leader of the “Yabloko” party for “neglect of the interests of society” and spoiled ballots
On September 29 at 6:00, police removed the leader of the “Yabloko” party, Nikolai Rybakov, from the St. Petersburg–Moscow train.
Taken to police department No. 19, Rybakov was charged under Part 1 of Article 20.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation — “petty hooliganism.” The basis of the charge was an event that occurred at a polling station in St. Petersburg on September 20, when Rybakov, not finding the “Yabloko” party in the list of candidates, spoiled all the ballots by writing the main demands of the “Yabloko” program: “For peace,” “For freedom,” “For life without fear,” “For a ceasefire agreement.”
After the administrative protocol was drawn up, Rybakov was taken to the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg.
According to the protocol drawn up at the police station, Rybakov by his actions “neglected the interests of society and other voters, ignored the rules of decency and propriety, demonstrated his disrespect for society and violated public order.”
On September 21, the “Yabloko” website presented the results of the State Duma elections for 99 of the 134 party candidates who ran in single-mandate districts and were admitted to the elections. Based on official data from the CEC website, 97 of the 99 party candidates admitted to the elections received an average of 5.74%, and 11 candidates more than 10%, taking five second and seven third places.
The “Yabloko” members are confident that the results here too are greatly underestimated.
https://www.yabloko.ru/cat-news/2026/09/29-0
https://www.yabloko.ru/cat-news/2026/09/21-1
Three reposts from the Ukrainian publication UNIAN resulted in six years of imprisonment
On September 29, it became known about the verdict handed down to 36-year-old St. Petersburg resident, a resident of the Nevsky district, Egor Gulyaev. The court imposed 6 years in a general-regime colony out of the 12 years in prison requested by the prosecutor.
According to the investigation, from February to September 2022, Gulyaev published materials on the VKontakte social network that were regarded as “defaming the honor and dignity of Russian servicemen.”
Three links to the Ukrainian publication UNIAN published four years ago on the VKontakte social network were regarded by the investigation as “episodes of public dissemination of knowingly false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” the motive of which was allegedly political hatred. The links contained information indicating the death of civilians in Ukraine due to Russia’s military actions, because of which Gulyaev’s VKontakte page was blocked by a decision of Roskomnadzor.
Gulyaev was detained by UFSB operatives in November 2025.
“I want this terrible, cruel and disgusting war to end,” the man said at the court hearing in his final word.
The man repented before the court, stating that he “made a mistake without fully realizing the degree of public danger,” adding that he considered the VKontakte page his personal space.
https://www.fontanka.ru/2026/09/29/76668254
https://www.fontanka.ru/2025/11/17/76125557/ (detention video)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd4B2pLMuJK/ (Video of the final word at court)
https://paperpaper.io/papernews/2026/9/28/12-let-za-fejki-ob-armii-zaprosili-ego