Azaryan Garri Eduardovich

On May 15, 2025, searches were conducted in St. Petersburg at the homes of five individuals associated with the left-wing movement “Workers’ Power.” Security forces raided the homes of Harry Azaryan, Oleg Rubish, Irada Ibragimova, Denis Koval, and Kirill (whose last name was not disclosed). During the searches, copies of the “Workers’ Power Manifesto” were seized.

After questioning, four were released, while a criminal case was opened against Harry Azaryan, a 23-year-old student at St. Petersburg State University and a citizen of Kazakhstan, on charges of publicly calling for terrorist activities and publicly justifying terrorism.

According to investigators, between January 3 and February 27, 2025, Azaryan, as a member of the “Workers’ Power” community, publicly called for violent actions, mass killings, revolution, and the violent seizure of power in the Russian Federation at the movement’s congress. Azaryan’s speeches were recorded, transcribed, and published on the “Google Drive” cloud storage service.

On July 15, 2025, the Krasnogvardeisky District Court of St. Petersburg ordered Azaryan to be held in pretrial detention.

People began talking about “Workers’ Power” after a protest on March 24, 2025, at the entrance to St. Petersburg State University, when a mannequin depicting Minevra was hung from the base of the monument to Count Uvarov, along with a note reading “Science is dead.” Photos from the protest were posted by members of the student movement “Administration Relations Office” (URA), which advocates for the rights of SPbU students.

Activists from the “Workers’ Power” movement later stated that law enforcement officials had downloaded materials from the congress from the account of one of the detainees, while altering some of the documents—none of their statements or speeches contained illegal calls to action, but merely reflected an openly Marxist position.

In January 2026, Harry was released from pretrial detention under certain restrictions.

On February 11, 2026, the 1st Western District Military Court found Harry Azaryan guilty and sentenced him to two years of imprisonment in a penal colony. The court decided to remand Harry in custody until the sentence became final.

On June 8, 2026, the Military Court of Appeals upheld the sentence.