Alexander Lunin, a serviceman from Russia’s Voronezh region who had published an address to Vladimir Putin warning that “the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin,” has been released after 11 days of administrative arrest.
According to Vyorstka, the video message to the Kremlin has been removed from his social media accounts. In addition, 17 posts published on Lunin’s Telegram channel between June 23 and June 26 disappeared. Almost all of them were deleted early on July 9, shortly after the first post appeared on the channel following his arrest.
What happened before the arrest
On June 25, the 39-year-old Lunin published an appeal to Putin demanding a personal meeting. He said that if refused, “the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin.”
Lunin later said he was not calling for a coup but was trying to convey information about what was happening at the front. The Kremlin said it was aware of the video but had not yet reviewed it. Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the wording used in the recording as “rather strange.”
A few days later, Lunin said he had been contacted by Vitaly Borodin, described in the report as an informer, who invited him to Moscow. After that, the serviceman stopped communicating, and his home was searched.
It later emerged that Lunin had been given 11 days of administrative arrest under a protocol accusing him of displaying “extremist” symbols.