Maksim Ivankin

An anarchist from Penza, Maksim Ivankin was first detained in March 2017 together with Mikhail Kulkov and anti-fascist Aleksei Poltavets, who claimed that after his detention he had been tortured by FSB officers. Then, according to Poltavets, one of the officers searched Kulkov's backpack and then shouted "There's drugs here!". The detainees were not allowed to look in the direction of the officer at that moment.

During the "interrogation" at the FSB, Kulkov took all the blame, Poltavets said. After two days, the young men were released on the recognisance not to leave.

In June 2018, it became known that a criminal case been opened against Kulkov and Ivankin for preparation to produce or sell drugs in large quantities (Paragraph D Part 4, Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code with the application of Part 3, Article 30 of the Criminal Code).

In July, two young men were detained in Moscow and brought to Penza pre-trial detention centre. The court arrested them. Later it became known that they were also being charged with participation in the "Network" terrorist community.

On 10 February 2020, he was sentenced to 13 years in a strict regime penal colony.

Eleven days after the verdict announcement, "Meduza" published the article "Four went into the woods, but only two came out". The text contains the story of Aleksei Poltavets about the murder of two people — Artem Dorofeev and Ekaterina Levchenko. In an interview with Meduza, Poltavets said that he, together with Maxim Ivankin, killed a young man and a girl in 2017. According to him, the four of them were hiding in the Riazan region from law enforcement agencies who accused them of selling drugs, but Dorofeev and Levchenko decided to return to Penza. Poltavets and Ivankin, fearing that the returnees would give away their whereabouts, allegedly tricked them into the forest and killed them. Poltavets subsequently left Russia.

Ivankin was charged with the murder of two people. There are no grounds to regard the case as politically motivated, and some of the evidence in the case is questionable. Ivankin said that he was beaten and tortured by other prisoners at a medical centre in one of the penal colonies and forced to write and memorise confessions proposed by the investigation. On 12 February 2024, in the murder case, Ivankin was sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime colony — by partial addition to the previous term, the total was 24 years. On 7 June 2024, the court of appeal reduced the sentence in the murder case by one year. On 27 November 2024, the court of cassation returned the case to the court of appeal for a new trial. On 18 February 2025, the appeal court left the decision unchanged — 23 and a half years in a strict regime penal colony.