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Alexander Margolin

At largeChecked against the source: September 5, 2026, 6:09 AM
Criminal Code
Article 212 part 2, Russian Criminal CodeArticle 318 part 1, Russian Criminal Code
Case category
Cases related to mass actions
Verdict
Imprisonment (general regime)
Sentence
3 years 6 months
Date of verdict
2014-08-17
Region
Moscow
City
Moscow

Case summary

Alexander Margolin is one of many ordinary participants of the 6 May 2012 action on Bolotnaya Square, who does not belong to any movements or parties. He had participated in mass protest events before, and in December 2011 he was detained and sentenced to 10 days of arrest. Following the Bolotnaya rally, he was detained on 20 February 2013 and initially questioned as a witness, but was arrested a day later on charges of participation in the mass riots that allegedly took place on Bolotnaya and use of violence against a representative of the authorities. Investigator Timofei Grachev claimed that Margolin was hiding from the investigation, although Margolin himself claimed that he was living openly, had not received any summonses and did not know that the investigation was interested in him. In May 2013, on the eve of a court hearing to extend Margolin's detention, the Investigative Committee seized both cars of the Margolin family as future compensation for damage to asphalt pavement worth 28 million roubles, according to an assessment by an investigative expert. According to the investigation, Margolin threw policeman Bazhanov to the ground and kicked him twice.

On 18 August 2014, the Zamoskvoretsky Court sentenced Alexander Margolin to three and a half years' imprisonment in a general regime colony. The Moscow City Court left the judgement unchanged. On 9 February 2016, he was released on parole

Others charged under Article 212 part 2, Russian Criminal Code

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Source: this person’s record in the OVD-Info political persecution database

Published under CC BY 3.0. The criteria for treating a person as politically persecuted belong to OVD-Info; FACTUM relays their assessment and makes none of its own.

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