A participant in the opposition Free Russia Forum, publicist Alexander Skobov was detained on the evening of April 2 in St. Petersburg on charges of promoting terrorist activities, oppositionists Vladimir Volokhonsky and Alexey Lushnikov reported.
The reason for the charges has not been reported. In March, Skobov was included by the Ministry of Justice in the register of so-called foreign agents.
On 31 March, in an interview with the Sever.Realii website, 66-year-old Skobov said that he was calling for help from the Russian volunteer battalions fighting on the side of Ukraine. Russian authorities have declared the Legion “Freedom of Russia” and the “Russian Volunteer Corps” terrorist organizations.
According to Skobov, he opposes freezing the conflict in Ukraine. “Only victory for Ukraine, only the liberation of all territories captured by Russia, restoration of the 1991 borders, reparations for aggression and bringing to justice those members of the military-political leadership of Russia who started the war,” he said.
The journalist’s phone and computer were confiscated. He was unable to take his diabetes medication with him, Rotunda reports. Skobov’s associates told the editors that he intends to refuse a lawyer, and Volokhonsky writes about the same.
During Soviet times, Skobov published the anti-government magazine Perspectives in Leningrad. In the USSR he was twice sent for compulsory treatment due to participation in opposition activities. In Russia, he was published in the radical opposition publication Grani. He was repeatedly a guest on Radio Liberty’s broadcasts before the editorial office was included in the list of so-called undesirable organizations.
Радио Свобода
