Veselov Sergey Vladimirovich

In March 2022, in the city of Shuya in the Ivanovo region, an unknown person wrote “No to war” on the facade of the city administration building. On March 22, 2022, the Shuya District Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case for vandalism. At 12:30 a.m. on March 27, a local resident and anti-war activist, Sergei Veselov, was detained on charges of writing the inscription. According to him, late at night, when he was returning home from visiting friends, a car overtook him and stopped in front of him. Veselov turned into an alley, but the car followed him. Veselov tried to get away from the car, but it followed him every time. In the end, Sergei entered the schoolyard, where two men from the car approached him. One of the men showed him some document and said that he was a police officer, but did not introduce himself or give Veselov a chance to read the information in the document. The man asked if he was drunk, and Veselov replied that he was not. He was then taken to the Shuysky District Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, where Veselov gave his details and place of residence, and the contents of his pockets were checked. He did not have any identification documents with him. The activist's lawyer, Anastasia Rudenko, arrived, but the police forcibly removed her from the department and initiated a “Fortress” plan. In the absence of a lawyer, two reports of administrative offenses were drawn up against Veselov for disobeying the lawful orders of a criminal investigation department officer. The first was in connection with Veselov's refusal to provide the criminal investigation department officer with documents proving his identity. The second was for refusing to undergo fingerprinting. According to law enforcement officials, they conducted fingerprinting as part of a criminal case. Veselov was allegedly served with a notice of suspicion of committing a crime in the presence of his defense attorney, Sergei Vyacheslavovich Gusev (register number 37/61), after which he acquired the status of a suspect. On the afternoon of March 28, the activist was taken to court for the consideration of administrative cases, but the hearing did not take place: closer to 5 p.m., Veselov was hospitalized from the court to the Shuya Central District Hospital due to high blood pressure. On April 1, the Shuya City Court arrested Veselov for eight days on charges of refusing to undergo fingerprinting. On the same day, another report was filed against Sergei Veselov for discrediting the Russian army. According to the report, on March 15, 2022, Veselov posted a video on the social network VKontakte titled “Video from Sergei Veselov,” in which opposition figure Leonid Volkov recites a text discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. On April 6, the Shuya City Court fined Veselov 3,000 rubles for refusing to provide identification. On May 8, in connection with the vandalism case involving graffiti in Ivanovo, four more people were searched, including teacher Olga Nazarenko and Leonid Goryunov. During the search, all of Goryunov's equipment was seized—his computer, laptop, phones, including his underage daughter's devices. All four are witnesses in the case. On June 6, the Shuya City Court considered the administrative offense report dated April 1 under the article on discrediting the Russian army and fined Sergei Veselov 30,000 rubles. This decision formed the basis for the tightening of the charges against the activist in the criminal case of vandalism: the motive of political hatred was added to it. In July, the first episode of repeated discrediting of the Russian army was added to the charges. The reason for initiating the case was videos on Veselov's YouTube channel, which at that time had 16 subscribers. One of the videos that the investigation considers to be in violation of the law was called “Water is wet, grass is green, the sky is blue, people are killed in war.” In August, the man's home was searched again. On September 26, a second episode was added to the case under the article on discrediting the Russian army: the blogger posted his speech in court on his YouTube channel, where his appeal in an administrative case on discrediting the army was being considered. At the court hearing, Veselov spoke out against the war in Ukraine. In connection with this, Veselov's apartment was searched again. On December 21, a third case of “discrediting” was brought against the blogger, again because of YouTube videos. One of the videos, according to the blogger, was a video titled "The truth is being deleted! The guy lost his nerve! (06.09.2022) The FSB broke into the house!“ He did not shoot it, nor does he run the channel ”Opposition 2.0.“ However, Veselov himself appears in the video. The video is captioned ”Sergey Veselov's channel! Don't ignore brave people, go and support them!“ The second video was posted on the channel ”That Very Veselov." Both videos are about the war in Ukraine. On December 27, Veselov was placed under house arrest. Initially, separate criminal cases were opened for each of the episodes, but later they were combined into one proceeding. Veselov was finally charged only in March 2023. On June 27, 2024, Judge Larisa Sterkhova of the Shuya City Court of the Ivanovo Region found Sergei Veselov guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 350,000 rubles. The judge acquitted Veselov of one count of discrediting the army and dismissed the vandalism case due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, but ordered Veselov to pay damages of nearly 45,000 rubles. On August 19, 2024, the Ivanovo Regional Court upheld the sentence. In late December 2022, Sergei Veselov, an activist from Shuya, Ivanovo Region, was charged with insulting a judge over his video titled "What's Happening to the Russian Judicial System?" In it, the man called Judge Nikolai Vergazov of the Frunzensky District Court of Ivanovo, who had previously ordered him to restrain from certain actions in a case of repeated discrediting of the army, a "patented cretin." As a preventive measure, Veselov was given a written undertaking not to leave the city and to behave properly. On August 22, 2023, the Shuya City Court of Ivanovo Oblast found Sergei Veselov guilty and sentenced him to 300 hours of community service. On September 26, 2023, the Ivanovo Regional Court upheld the sentence. On October 5, 2023, in Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast, security forces searched the home of local activist Sergei Veselov. They seized his laptop, tablet, and mobile phone, and took him in for questioning. His equipment was seized, and the blogger was released on a written undertaking not to leave the city. A second criminal case has been opened against Sergei Veselov for repeated "discrediting of the Russian army." The prosecution was prompted by a YouTube video titled "Don't Confuse Germans with Nazis, and Russians with Putinists." Initially, the man was also charged with rehabilitating Nazism, but the investigation dropped this charge. On May 17, 2024, the Shuya City Court of the Ivanovo Region found Sergei Volkov guilty and sentenced him to two years and one month in a penal colony. On July 1, 2024, the Ivanovo Regional Court upheld the sentence. In early June 2024, a criminal case was opened against Sergei Veselov for "confidential cooperation with a foreign state" and incitement to terrorism. The criminal prosecution under the "incitement to terrorism" article stemmed from reposts of publications retelling the "Irpen Declaration" by the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian House of Culture. The blogger is also accused of collaborating with a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine. According to security officials, Veselov contacted a user named "Maxim," to whom he provided information about the locations of industrial enterprises in the Ivanovo region fulfilling defense contracts. On February 27, 2025, the 2nd Western District Military Court found Sergei Veselov guilty and sentenced him to seven years in a general regime penal colony. On July 17, 2025, the Military Court of Appeals amended the sentence; details are unknown.