Kuban bloggers Andreev and Shamardin recognized as political prisoners

The "Memorial" Centre for Defence of Human Rights has recognized the bloggers, Stanislav Andreev and Alexei Shamardin, from Kuban (Krasnodar Territory) as political prisoners; they used to post videos about violations of the law by state officials in their YouTube channels.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 19, 2022, it became known that Stanislav Andreev and Alexei Shamardin were found guilty of stealing two "Invalid" road signs. Both were sentenced to 2.5 years in colony each.

"We believe that the actions of Andreev and Shamardin cannot be qualified as theft," human rights defenders have noted in their Telegram channel.

In February 2019, the bloggers conducted a raid in Timashevsk to identify traffic violations. As a result, they told GIBDD (traffic police) inspectors about the unreasonable installation of signs in the parking area. The inspectors called the staff of the Timashevsk administration, responsible for drawing up road sign layouts in the city. They said that the signs "Invalid" in the layout and must be dismantled.

After receiving a permit from administration officials, Shamardin removed the signs and, with the officials' consent, left them as "trophies," human rights defenders have noted.

Earlier, a criminal case was opened against Andreev under the article on insulting a state official. On February 16, 2019, he expressively pointed out that the court marshals, who let him to the session at the Krasnodar Territorial Court, were receiving their salary in vain.