Kochanov Konstantin Andreevich

In Moscow, in the city center, on the night of May 9, 2023, crosses drawn with red paint appeared on the asphalt: two crosses near houses on Bolshoy Kozlovsky Lane and one cross on Nizhnyaya Krasnoselskaya Street. On the same day, 25-year-old Konstantin Kochanov was detained. 3 men jumped out of a car parked near the entrance, knocked Kochanov to the ground and twisted his arms. Kachanov was brought to the Basmanny District Department of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, where a protocol on an administrative offense was drawn up against him under the article on failure to comply with a lawful order of a police officer. According to the protocol, Kochanova was detained around three o'clock in the afternoon on suspicion of extremist activity and transported by vehicle to document his activities based on the results of a check, but in response to the demands of the operative officer of the TsOE to leave the service vehicle and proceed to the police department to draw up procedural documents, Kochanov "answered with a categorical refusal, began waving his arms, pushing away police officers, resisting physically, thereby hindering the performance of official duties, and did not respond to repeated demands to stop his illegal actions" The next day, May 10, Judge Olga Lipkina of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sent Kochanov under administrative arrest for 15 days. On May 16, 2023, a main case was opened against Konstantin Kachanov for vandalism and hooliganism motivated by political hatred—law enforcement officials believed that in this way, the young man expressed "his disagreement with Russia's special military operation in Ukraine" and "carried out public actions that create a real threat to undermining state security and pose a threat of harm to the lives and health of citizens." May 18, 2023, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sent Kochanov to a pre-trial detention center. Human rights defenders from 'The First Department' claim that an indictment for treason was being prepared against Kachanov. According to human rights defenders, before his arrest, Kachanov found the Ukrainian project 'I Want to Live,' which calls on Russian military personnel to voluntarily surrender, and established contact with them so that if he were suddenly mobilized, he could 'immediately surrender.'", He was offered to draw red crosses in public places, these crosses are allegedly marks for Ukrainian missiles. The investigation did not have time to re-qualify the case as treason: after the end of the preliminary investigation period, Kochanov was released on his own recognizance, after which the young man was able to illegally cross the border with Finland and seek asylum there. He was put on the wanted list.