Udaltsov Sergey Stanislavovich

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On the morning of January 11, 2024, a search was conducted in the apartment in Moscow where Sergei Udaltsov lives. Shortly before it began, the politician wrote on his Telegram channel: “They are banging on the door, saying they are from the police. They came to search.” After that, the politician was detained and taken to the Investigative Committee for questioning. He was accused of publicly justifying terrorism under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Public justification of terrorism using the Internet”) due to publications on the Internet. As Udaltsov himself told journalists, the case was opened for posts in support of Ufa residents, members of a Marxist circle, who were arrested in 2022 in the case of a terrorist community. In his Telegram channel, Sergei Udaltsov has indeed mentioned the case of the “Ufa Five” more than once: he called the charges against the members of the circle absurd, talked about the actions held in support of those arrested (for example, in Moscow on July 16, 2022, in Penza and other cities) and published calls to raise money for those arrested.

“I can’t call the charges against me anything other than nonsense,” Sergei Udaltsov said before the start of the court hearing on the selection of a preventive measure. “Moral support for people who have not yet been convicted can in no way be a justification for anything, including terrorism.” Udaltsov said that he is accused of justifying terrorism due to the fact that he “posted posts in moral support for the guys from Ufa, who were arrested in 2022 on charges of creating an alleged terrorist community. But this has not yet been established by a court verdict; there has been no verdict yet. And so they were members of a Marxist circle – this is what I know from the press. The investigation interprets the study of Marxism as terrorism.”

According to the media, the lawyers refused to comment on which posts Udaltsov is accused of justifying terrorism, citing the fact that they had signed a non-disclosure agreement about the investigation data. Nevertheless, lawyer Violetta Volkova told the media that “there is no criminal element in the actions incriminated to Udaltsov,” and the criminal case was opened on December 15, 2023. The court hearing to choose a preventive measure was closed at the request of the investigator, the press was removed from the courtroom.

The preventive measure in the form of detention was chosen for Sergei Udaltsov on January 12, 2024 by judge of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow Evgenia Sergeevna Nikolaeva.

The press service of the Moscow courts reported that “Udaltsov S.S., the coordinator of the public movement “Left Front”, posted publications on the movement’s website, the Telegram channel “Sergey Udaltsov” and other Internet resources that supported the actions of individuals accused of carrying out terrorist activities.”

Sergey Udaltsov himself linked his detention and arrest to the upcoming presidential elections in the Russian Federation. “Of course, this prosecution is connected, in my opinion, with the presidential elections. We support the opponents of Vladimir Putin. I think this is one of the main reasons for my detention. Apparently, today there is no place for dissent in Russia at all,” Udaltsov said in court and added: “We will appeal. I absolutely disagree with the charges and the measure of restraint. Our cause is just! We will win!”

Later, Basmanny District Court judges Elena Anatolyevna Lenskaya and Timur Savelyevich Vakhrameev extended Udaltsov’s detention.

On February 9, 2024, Sergei Udaltsov was included in the federal register of extremists and terrorists of Rosfinmonitoring.

Grounds for recognition as a political prisoner

The figure of Sergei Udaltsov and the general context of criminal prosecution

There were three main factors that could have attracted the attention of the security forces to Udaltsov. The first is the authorities’ growing intolerance of any form of criticism from any political opponents; the second is the need for new detentions and arrests to intimidate society as a whole and its representatives belonging to various social strata and political camps; the third is the political biography of Sergei Udaltsov, who was a much more active and visible political figure before his first prison term. Then, in the late 2000s – first half of the 2010s, left-wing activists organized various protests under his leadership, including “Day of Wrath” and “Anti-Capitalism”, and took part in “Strategy-31”. During the opposition protests in connection with violations in the State Duma elections in December 2011, Udaltsov was one of the leaders of the protest movement. Over the next two years, the politician was detained and sent to administrative arrest many times. In 2012, Sergei Udaltsov became one of the heroes of the NTV film “Anatomy of Protest-2”, which, among other things, talked about the meetings of the activist and his associates Konstantin Lebedev and Leonid Razvozzhaev with representatives of the Georgian authorities.

Soon after the release of the film, a case was opened against Udaltsov, Lebedev and Razvozzhaev for preparing mass riots. In 2014, Udaltsov was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison. According to the investigation, he organized mass riots on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012 and tried to initiate similar actions throughout Russia.

According to the Memorial Human Rights Center, which recognized Sergei Udaltsov as a political prisoner, the criminal case was opened that time with the aim of putting pressure on him as one of the leaders of the Russian opposition, to compromise the opposition movement, especially its left wing. The political motive for the prosecution was probably, in particular, the desire of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to prove foreign financing of the mass riots that allegedly took place on May 6, 2012, which this agency officially and unofficially stated from the very beginning of the investigation. After his release in 2017, Sergei Udaltsov distanced himself from his former comrades from the liberal camp, primarily because, unlike them, he essentially supported the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s aggression in Donbass. “Unfortunately, both Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, and many others <…> took an unacceptable position of national betrayal for me,” Udaltsov claimed. “I supported the will of the residents of Donbass, and we have held this position since 2014. They wanted to self-determine, they spoke out against the rule of Nazism and Banderaism in Ukraine, and they had every right [to do so].” His wife, Anastasia Udaltsova, also one of the organizers of opposition protests in the past, has been a member of the State Duma since 2022 and is included in the sanctions lists of the European Union, Switzerland and Canada for supporting aggression against Ukraine.

At the same time, Sergei Udaltsov, although he was quite careful in his statements, did not completely abandon criticism of the authorities and declaratively stated that he supported not Putin, but the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

According to one of the founders of the Left Front, Alexei Sakhnin, this is the possible motive for the new persecution of Sergei Udaltsov. He believes that Udaltsov is being punished for organizing informal primaries of left-patriotic forces, which were planned to determine a single candidate from the center-left opposition in the 2024 presidential elections. The procedure was scheduled for November 21, 2023. It was assumed that the Left Front would propose that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation nominate the winner of these primaries as a common candidate for the elections. As Udaltsov himself previously told Kommersant, the event had to be postponed due to police attention. As a result, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation nominated State Duma deputy Nikolai Kharitonov for the elections. As Sakhnin suggested in a conversation with NEWS.ru, they decided to “punish Udaltsov for a weak attempt to disrupt the harmony of the upcoming electoral event.” Among other things, on November 17, 2023, Udaltsov announced that Igor Strelkov, accused under Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of “public calls for extremist activity using the media or the Internet” and held in a pre-trial detention center, would take part in the aforementioned primaries, which also could not have escaped the attention of the competent authorities. Sergei Udaltsov reminded law enforcement of his presence once again on December 21, 2023, when he was detained on Red Square for attempting to unfurl a flag with Stalin’s image. Udaltsov was taken to the police station and then to court, which sentenced him to 40 hours of community service under Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation for violating the procedure for organizing a rally. He insisted that he and the Communist Party deputies had participated in an approved rally on the birthday of the late Soviet leader. Udaltsov called the incident “an act of intimidation on the eve of the presidential elections” and promised to appeal the court’s decision.

We believe that the new criminal case against Sergei Udaltsov is in line with the general pattern of persecution of dissidents (or people perceived as such by government officials) and is the result of the expansion of political repression, which is becoming less and less selective as it grows.

Unreasonableness of Criminal Prosecution

At the moment, we do not know for sure what statements in the Telegram channel and other Internet resources became the basis for initiating a criminal case on justification of terrorism, however, according to Udaltsov himself, the prosecution is being carried out in connection with his posts expressing indignation at the case of the Ufa Marxist circle.

The members of this circle, who held their meetings and lectures in the library to discuss the works of the classics of Marxism, were detained and placed in a pre-trial detention center back in March 2022. According to investigators, former State Duma candidate from the Communists of Russia Pavel Matisov created a terrorist organization (Part 1 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and four other people – deputy of the Kurultai of Bashkortostan and chairman of the local Left Front Dmitry Chuvilin, otolaryngologist Alexei Dmitriev, pensioner Yuri Efimov and left-wing activist Rinat Burkeev – participated in it (Part 2 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code). They are also all accused of preparing for the violent seizure of power (Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code, Article 278 of the Criminal Code), group theft of firearms and ammunition (Part 1 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code, paragraphs “a”, “b” of Part 4 of Article 226 of the Criminal Code), as well as public justification and propaganda of terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) and undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities (Article 205.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

The Investigative Committee claims that during searches of the members of the circle, “grenades, traumatic weapons, containers with incendiary mixtures, means of communication, equipment for use in the field, extremist literature and other items” were found.

The investigation considers the texts and videos published in the group’s VK group in 2019-2021 to be evidence that the Marxists were preparing for an armed seizure of power. The defendants in the case themselves do not admit their guilt. Dmitry Chuvilin spoke about threats and violence from security forces. Their case has been considered in the Central District Military Court since October last year.

According to the investigation by Mediazona, the main witness in the case was a provocateur planted in the group by security forces, who, in fact, provoked the members of the group to make careless statements about the possible seizure of military units, take pictures with sports weapons and “secret gatherings”, which were, with a high degree of probability, simply collective trips of the group members to the countryside. This scheme – the introduction of a provocateur into an association of interests, who not only subsequently testifies as a secret witness, but literally actively initiates and organizes some illegal or allegedly illegal actions, actually inciting them or falsifying the event of a crime – makes this case similar to the case of “New Greatness”, the defendants in which were recognized by the Human Rights Center “Memorial” as political prisoners. In many publications about this case on his Telegram channel and on the website “Free Press”, as well as on the website of the “Left Front”, Sergei Udaltsov, among other things, wrote the following: “The accusations against Ufa left-wing activists should be considered a deliberate operation of the security forces, aimed at discrediting the Russian left-patriotic opposition and intimidating our supporters. Well, of course, someone in this case is simply trying to curry favor, earn new “stars” on their shoulder straps and a bonus for “good work”.

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I call on the authorities to release Dmitry Chuvilin, Rinat Burkeev and other defendants in the “Ufa case”, and also to drop the monstrous charges of “terrorist activity” against them. I call on all progressive-minded citizens to peacefully and legally express solidarity with the arrested comrades. Because the fight against Nazism is incompatible with absurd repressions against the most sincere opponents of Nazism!”

He also called the charges delusional, those arrested innocent, and called for collecting and donating funds to support those arrested and long-term Ufa residents held in pretrial detention, whom he called his comrades, like-minded people and political prisoners.

Sergei Udaltsov’s wife, Communist Party deputy Anastasia Udaltsova, also sent a parliamentary inquiry to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation asking them to conduct an investigation into the legality of bringing to criminal responsibility the regional coordinator of the Left Front and deputy of the Kurultai of the Republic of Bashkortostan Dmitry Chuvilin.

While we currently do not have the case materials to examine them in detail, we can nevertheless assume that the formal reason for the prosecution could have been the fact that all defendants in the Marxist case are included in the so-called list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring. This could have given the prosecution formal grounds for accusing Udaltsov of justifying “terrorists” and “terrorism” by using his calls for solidarity with the people of Ufa.

We consider the inclusion of defendants (both in the Ufa case and any others) in such a list before the court has passed a sentence to be illegal. Likewise, we believe it is unlawful to prosecute Sergei Udaltsov or anyone else for publicly justifying people who have not yet been convicted of committing a terrorist crime. According to paragraph 1 of Article 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, “everyone accused of committing a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedure established by federal law and established by a court verdict that has entered into legal force.” From Udaltsov’s numerous texts in support of them, it follows that he does not believe in their guilt, considers the case against them to be fabricated, and does not at all justify any terrorist acts that were actually committed.

Note 1 to Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation states that public justification of terrorism should be understood as “a public statement recognizing the ideology and practice of terrorism as correct and in need of support and imitation.” There is no other legal definition of these concepts in Russian legislation. Based on the available information, we have no information that Udaltsov in his statements declared the ideology and practice of terrorism to be correct or spoke about the need to support and imitate them. Moreover, in one of his statements, Udaltsov, assessing the criminal case against the members of the Marxist circle as “an outright provocation against supporters of socialism,” stated that “we have always opposed any terrorist activity; in our work, we use legal and legitimate methods of political struggle.” We oppose the broad interpretation of the concept of “justification of terrorism” and the artificial criminalization of the actions of those accused under this article and are convinced that the established practice of applying Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has a clear accusatory bias and requires revision. As previously noted in the report “Pro-terrorist statements” by the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, which is part of the review series “Criminal prosecutions for terrorism in Russia and abuses by the state”, “the current practice of applying Art. 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in general, demonstrates extremely dangerous repressive tendencies. <…> Both criminal legislation (the minimum prison term for supporting terrorism on the Internet is 5 years) and law enforcement practice (in the overwhelming majority of cases, defendants receive a real term) are being tightened. In many cases, such criminal cases are characterized by a formal approach and a noticeable disproportion between the punishment and the real danger, and sometimes prosecution can be revenge for political views or socio-political activity.” All of the above is highly likely to apply to the case of Sergei Udaltsov.

We believe that the fact that the trial on the selection of a preventive measure was closed at the request of the investigator and that journalists were removed from the trial, as well as the lawyers signing a non-disclosure agreement on the progress of the trial, demonstrate a fear of openness and publicity, and therefore may serve as additional evidence of the illegality of the charges brought.

It is also unlawful to apply a preventive measure to Udaltsov in the form of detention in a pre-trial detention facility for statements on the Internet that do not pose any significant public danger. In accordance with Article 108 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, “detention as a preventive measure is applied by a court decision in relation to a suspect or accused of committing crimes for which the criminal law provides for a punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term exceeding three years <…> if it is impossible to apply another, more lenient, preventive measure.” In our opinion, in Udaltsov’s case, the selection of another preventive measure was not only possible, but also necessary.

We believe that the persecution of Sergei Udaltsov and his placement in a pre-trial detention facility is related to his past and present socio-political activities, and the need to increase and expand repression in modern Russia. In addition, we fear that the practice of applying the article on justification of terrorism to individuals who legally support political prisoners accused under “terrorist articles” may spread to a wide range of people and make such support dangerous for anyone who doubts the prosecution’s version of events.

While not sharing many of Sergei Udaltsov’s political views, in particular his support for Russian military aggression in Ukraine, we believe that in this case the authorities are illegally, for political reasons, charging him with a criminal article solely for peaceful and non-violent actions – calls for solidarity with arrested like-minded people.

The persecution and imprisonment of Udaltsov in this criminal case violates the provisions of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to which “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference, <…> shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”

Similar guarantees are contained in Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which guarantees freedom of thought and speech.

Of course, in accordance with the law, these freedoms may be limited to the extent necessary to respect the rights and reputations of others, to protect national security, public order, health or morals of the population. However, in this case, such a need is not seen.

We categorically condemn Udaltsov’s expressed support for full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine, dictated by “concern” for the residents of the so-called DPR and LPR, his statements that “the special operation in Ukraine must be completed by the revival of the Soviet Union.” At the same time, in the statements by Udaltsov that we have studied, there are no calls for violent actions based on national, ethnic, racial, religious or other grounds that would exclude the possibility of recognizing him as a political prisoner.

The independent human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial”, which continues the work of the program to support political prisoners of the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, in accordance with the international guidelines for defining the concept of “political prisoner”, finds that the criminal case against Sergei Udaltsov is politically motivated, aimed at the involuntary cessation of public activity by critics of the authorities and intimidation of society as a whole, i.e. the strengthening and retention of power by subjects of authority. Deprivation of liberty was applied to him in violation of the rights to freedom of speech, a fair trial and other rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The human rights project “Support for Political Prisoners. Memorial. Memorial considers Sergei Udaltsov a political prisoner, demands his release and the end of his criminal prosecution.

Additional information

Lawyers: Violetta Vladimirovna Volkova, Dmitry Vladimirovich Agranovsky, Dmitry Yuryevich Repkin.

Publications about the case:

April 15, 2022. Mediazona. The Ufa-style “Network” case. How the FSB declared a Marxist circle a “terrorist community” — and what do Donbass veterans have to do with it

January 11, 2024. News.ru. Online posts or elections? Why a criminal case was opened against Udaltsov

Date of reference update: 24.06.2024.