Picketer in Yerevan Demands Release of Activist Convicted in Urals

Activist Alexander Sherchenkov held a picket near the Russian embassy in Armenia in support of Alexei Rozhkov, convicted in Yekaterinburg for attempting to set fire to a military registration and enlistment office.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, activist from St. Petersburg Alexander Sherchenkov regularly holds pickets in front of the Russian embassy in Yerevan demanding the release of prisoners in Russia, whom he considers to be unjustly convicted. Thus, on July 12, he held a picket in support of Andrei Chernov, convicted in the "Network" case (the organization is recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia).

On July 26, Alexander Sherchenkov held a solo picket near the Russian embassy in Yerevan in support of Alexei Rozhkov, convicted in Yekaterinburg, RusNews reports.

The publication is illustrated with a photograph in which Sherchenkov holds a poster with the inscription: "Freedom for Alexei Rozhkov." Behind the picketer are cars on the roadway of a city street. No other people are visible in the frame.

Kuban verdicts on sabotage cases set example for courts in other regions

On May 20, a court in Yekaterinburg sentenced Alexei Rozhkov to 16 years in prison, finding him guilty of setting fire to a military registration and enlistment office in Berezovsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast. According to investigators, on March 11, 2022, Rozhkov threw Molotov cocktails at the entrance to the military registration and enlistment office building. He was charged under articles on terrorist acts, justification of terrorism, and fakes about the army, RIA Novosti reported the same day.

There were no casualties in the incident. In court, Rozhkov stated that he threw the Molotov cocktail to draw public attention to the military actions in Ukraine, with which he disagrees. The defendant emphasized that he did not intend to destroy the military registration and enlistment office, Kommersant reported on May 20.

Recall that Alexander Sherchenkov is an activist and anarchist who held solo pickets in front of the Russian embassy in Armenia in 2024. He flew to Yerevan from St. Petersburg in June 2022 after facing the risk of criminal prosecution on charges of discrediting the army. "I probably went out about 15 times to solitary pickets with a poster: "No to war" in St. Petersburg," the Russian-language publication in Armenia Lava Media cited his explanation on December 24, 2024.

Human rights activists consider the South Caucasus an unreliable refuge for Russians

At the end of February 2022 years, after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the flow of people leaving Russia increased. One of the countries of relocation was Armenia, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Why did Russians go to Armenia?".

An increase in the number of Russian citizens leaving for Armenia was also recorded in September-October 2022, after the announcement of mobilization in Russia. In the first 10 months of 2022, 1.4 million people arrived in Armenia, and almost half of them were Russian citizens.