An activist from Volzhsky was arrested for five days.

A court in Volzhsky has sentenced local activist Varvara Luch to five days in jail for allegedly promoting extremist symbols. She attracted the attention of law enforcement by attempting to secure approval for a rally against the Telegram ban. As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in early March, a 20-year-old Volzhsky resident submitted documents to the Volgograd mayor's office seeking approval for a rally against the blocking and slowdown of the popular messaging app Telegram. Volgograd City Hall responded by proposing to postpone the event "until the situation stabilizes." The organizer refused, after which "plainclothes men" approached her. On March 12, the rally organizer reported that three men in civilian clothes had come to her workplace and threatened to harass her employer, after which she was temporarily suspended. She then filed a notice of a rally in Volzhsky, but was denied permission on March 20. After the Volzhsky mayor's office refused permission for the rally for a second time, Varvara Luch received a police warning about the inadmissibility of holding unauthorized public events and announced the cancellation of the rally. Volzhsky resident Varvara Luch was detained on the street this afternoon. The police who detained the activist mentioned "LGBT propaganda**" on her social media page, the human rights project OVD-Info* reported, citing Varvara's boyfriend.

Lawyer Ivan Ivanov reported that the basis for the report against Varvara was an old post of hers, in which law enforcement officers saw symbols of an "extremist movement." "Somewhere in an old joke video, I saw a photo of Olga Buzova with a colorful flag," he wrote on his VKontakte page.

The activist was charged with propaganda or public display of symbols of extremist organizations (Part 1, Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Later that day, the Volzhsky City Court sentenced her to five days of administrative arrest, V1 reported.

"As expected, the security forces didn't stop at warnings, despite the fact that the woman acted strictly within the law and canceled rallies after approvals were denied. The very fact of political activity and people's involvement in it is already a crime in the eyes of the system," notes the Telegram channel "Dozor v Volgograd"*.

* are included in the Russian register of foreign agents.

**  The LGBT movement is recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation.

*** Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) is banned in Russia.