Gennady Makarov

Lipetsk activist, human rights defender. s In March 2022, Makarov was searched under the article on discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code), but no case was opened. In December, Makarov was searched again, this time under the libel case, and the same computers and phones that had already been seized during the previous search were seized again. The law enforcers refused to allow a lawyer to attend the investigation and to call an ambulance - Makarov and his mother felt ill. In October 2025, Makarov was searched and taken to Lipetsk, where he was pressured to incriminate former deputy Pavel Sokolov and write a confession, but it was not clear what information was required. The same thing was happening with Sokolov. On 5 November 2025, Makarov was detained in a libel case, the reason for which was the reposting of Nikita Mikhalkov's video on alleged extortion in the Lipetsk region on the Yelets Novosti channel: the video was accompanied by an untrue statement that Igor Artamonov, the governor of the region, had been detained on extortion charges.