On October 28, 2025, security forces in St. Petersburg again detained members of the band Stoptime immediately after their release from a detention center. Diana Loginova, known as Naoko, and guitarist Alexander Orlov had already served 12-day jail terms for performing in public songs by artists labeled “foreign agents” in Russia.
According to Novaya-Europe, on October 29 a court fined Naoko 30,000 rubles under the article on “discrediting” the army for performing Monetochka’s song “You’re a Soldier.” After the hearing, she was taken back to the police and then returned to court, where she received another 13 days of arrest under two administrative charges. Orlov was also sent back into custody for 13 days. Drummer Vladislav Leontyev was taken to a police station on the day he was due to be released and given a new protocol.
Why this tactic is used
According to OVD-Info, since 2011 there have been at least 53 cases in which repeated administrative detentions ended in criminal prosecution. Rights defenders say the number of similar episodes without a later criminal case is even higher, though difficult to calculate.
Sources cited by the outlet describe two main purposes: to keep a person behind bars without a criminal case in order to disrupt plans and intimidate them, or to buy time for searches, device hacking, and the preparation of evidence for future criminal prosecution.
Notable cases
The article recalls prominent examples from 2019, after protests ahead of the Moscow City Duma elections, when Dmitry Gudkov, Yulia Galyamina, Konstantin Yankauskas, and Ilya Yashin were detained again upon release. Gudkov said the practice is aimed above all at psychological pressure, leaving a person unsure when it will end.
According to Novaya-Europe, similar tactics were used in 2021 against members of Pussy Riot and reached their widest scale in 2023. OVD-Info counted 15 criminal cases that year that began with “carousel arrests.” One of the harshest examples involved Timofey Rudenko, who was repeatedly jailed in succession and later placed in pretrial detention on charges of justifying terrorism.
Olga Romanova, head of Russia Behind Bars, said that during such arrests security forces are often deciding what to do next: release the person, force them out of the country, or turn the case into a criminal prosecution.
The outlet also cites the cases of theater director Vsevolod Lisovsky and Rostov resident Anatoly Berezikov. In Berezikov’s case, after several consecutive arrests in 2023, it was later reported that he died in a detention center; marks from a stun gun were said to be found on his body.