Anapa resident accused of secret cooperation with foreign organization

Over the past six months, law enforcers arrested Dmitry Polunin, a resident of the city of Anapa, for ten times for criticizing the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine, hooliganism and disobedience to the police; then, they opened a case against him for cooperation with a foreign organization.

Prior to his detention under the criminal case, Polunin spent 140 days under arrest. This is a record in the practice of cyclical arrests used by law enforcers to keep in isolation those against whom they are collecting materials for a criminal case, the "Mediazona"* has noted.

Polunin was first arrested on September 22, 2023, for 15 days for disobeying the police. As soon as he was released, on October 7, 2023, a protocol was drawn up against him for petty hooliganism and he was again arrested for 15 days. Later, Polunin was arrested in Novorossiysk and Slavyansk-on-Kuban, and then in Krymsk, Tikhoretsk, and the villages of Vyselki and Dinskaya. He was charged with criticizing the SMO in Ukraine, appearing drunk in a public place and petty hooliganism, the "Kommersant" has informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has also reported that on June 7, it became known that a court in Crimea sentenced a resident of Kuban to 6.5 years and six months in jail, finding him guilty of trying to get to Ukraine in order to take part in hostilities against Russian troops.

*On September 29, 2021, the Ministry of Justice of Russia included the LLC "ZP" (the legal entity that had established the "Mediazona") into the list of media outlets-foreign agents.