Artem Kamardin

On 26 September 2022, the day after the "Mayakovsky Readings" on Triumfalnaya Square, special forces came to the flat where Kamardin and two other people were staying. The flat was searched, and all three were subjected to violence. According to Novaya Gazeta, Kamardin was beaten and raped by shoving a dumbbell up his anus. He was then forced to apologise on camera for a couplet he had recited on Triumfalnaya Square, 'Glory to Kievan Rus – Novorossiya, suck it'. After that, all three were taken to the investigation department of the Tverskoy district of Moscow, and the detainees, along with Kamardin, were released late in the evening. Kamardin was taken away by ambulance, but he was not admitted to the hospital and was taken to a temporary detention centre. On 28 September, the court sent him to custody. At first, Kamardin was charged with incitement to hatred with the threat of violence (paragraph 'a' of part 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code), but then the charge was reclassified to incitement to hatred by an organised group (paragraph 'c' of part 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code) and a charge of calls for activities against the security of the state, committed by an organised group (part 3 of article 280.4 of the Criminal Code) was added. On 28 December 2023, Kamardin was sentenced to seven years in a general regime colony. In the pre-trial detention centre, Kamardin was put on the preventive register 'as a person prone to committing terrorist and extremist offences'.

In March 2024, Kamardin was placed into an overcrowded cell in Butyrka prison – 26 arrestees for 22 beds. He is the only non-smoker in the cell, and his eyes hurt from the poor lighting.