In Kamchatka, shortly after the governor election ended, security officers searched the homes of seven local activists who support the ideas of Svetlana Lada-Rus, also known as Svetlana Peunova. As Novaya Gazeta Europe reports, the main defendant in the criminal case is former schoolteacher Vasilya Vershinina.
The Kamchatka Krai governor election ended on September 14. Incumbent Vladimir Solodov won with 62.97% of the vote. A week before the ballot, a protest was held in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky against restrictions on calls in Telegram and WhatsApp and against pressure to use the MAX messenger. Earlier, on September 4, FSB officers searched the homes of Vershinina, Alyona Didenko and five other women.
The court initially jailed Vershinina for two months, citing the seriousness of the accusation, but on September 12 an appeal changed the measure to house arrest. Investigators say the 42-year-old activist continued the work of the banned Volya party, recruited people, distributed leaflets and literature, and tried during the search to destroy documents and items that could become evidence.
According to investigators, since 2021 Peunova’s structure had continued under the name “Nationwide Union for Russia’s Revival” and through the “Kamchatka Krai Council.” The activists deny any link to Volya and say theirs is an informal group that grew out of a parents’ and anti-vaccination network and later focused on regional issues, the war, digitalization and criticism of election procedures.
People close to Vershinina told the newspaper that the pressure may have been tied not only to her sympathy for Lada-Rus, but also to her political activity. She had criticized the municipal filter, multi-day and electronic voting, collected signatures demanding Solodov’s resignation, and called for civil disobedience. On the eve of her arrest, she had also applied to hold a rally in the regional capital.