Leonid Melyokhin is a political prisoner
A political activist from Perm, denied asylum in the United States and deported to Russia, has been remanded in custody on a charge of justifying terrorism
The ‘Political Prisoners. Memorial’ human rights project, in accordance with international standards, considers Leonid Melyokhin a political prisoner. Melyokhin is being prosecuted on a charge of ‘making public calls to engage in terrorist activity’ for having put up a poster calling for Putin to be hanged. Melyokhin’s prosecution violates his rights to freedom of expression and a fair trial. We demand that Melyokhin be released immediately and that all criminal charges against him be dropped.
Who is Leonid Melekhin, and what are the charges against him?
Leonid Melyokhin is a businessman and civil society activist in Perm. He has been subjected to administrative-law penalties on multiple occasions for participating in protests. In the summer of 2023, he took to the streets with a poster in support of Aleksei Navalny.
In December 2023, Melyokhin decided to leave Russia for the United States. Before leaving, he hung a sign on a bridge in Perm that read: ‘V.V. Putin: murderer, fascist, usurper. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing / Fascists belong on the gallows.’ He attached a photo of Vladimir Putin to the top of the sign with sticky tape.
On 16 August 2024, the day he crossed the border from Mexico into the United States, Melyokhin sent a photo of the sign on the bridge to an acquaintance and asked him to post it online so that more people would see it.
In the United States, Melyokhin spent 10 months in a detention centre awaiting a decision on his request for political asylum. On 19 December 2024, a U.S. court denied his asylum request, stating it did not see sufficient grounds for him to fear persecution in Russia. On 11 June 2025, the appellate court upheld the decision.
Only later did it become known that as early as the autumn of 2024 Melyokhin had been added to Rosfinmonitoring’s list of terrorists and extremists.
Meanwhile, Melyokhin agreed to be deported and returned to Russia in July 2025, after which he was detained almost immediately. On 25 July 2025, he was remanded in custody on a charge of publicly inciting terrorism online (Article 205.2, Part 2, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) for calling for Putin’s assassination. Melyokhin faces up to seven years’ imprisonment if convicted.
Why do we consider Leonid Melyokhin a political prisoner?
The criminal prosecution of Leonid Melyokhin is retaliation for his civic stance and activism. Even if his words technically did constitute a crime, the actual public danger posed by posting a photo of a poster on a Telegram channel with a small audience is negligible, and such actions should not serve as grounds for criminal prosecution, let alone pre-trial detention.
Furthermore, the statement ‘Fascists belong on the gallows’ does not constitute a call for terrorism. It is a symbolic assessment of the actions of Vladimir Putin as the person responsible for unleashing a bloody war and as a war criminal who must be punished for the crimes he has committed.
It is both regrettable and alarming that Leonid Melyokhin was denied political asylum and deported from the United States, as is the fact that such denials are becoming systematic.
A detailed description of Leonid Melyokhin’s case and of our position is available on our website.
How can you help?
You can write to Leonid Melyokhin at the following address:
RU:
620019, Свердловская область, г. Екатеринбург, ул. Репина, д. 4, ФКУ СИЗО-1 ГУФСИН России по Свердловской области, Мелехин Леонид Александрович, 1990 г. р.
EN:
Leonid Aleksandrovich Melyokhin (born in 1990), Remand Prison No. 1, Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for Sverdlovsk Oblast, 4 Repina Street, Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, 620019, Russia.
You can also send emails via ZT (for payment with all bank cards) and Memorial-France (free of charge).
Please note that letters in languages other than Russian are highly unlikely to reach the intended recipient.
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