Vasily Melnikov
- Criminal Code
- Article 207.3 part 2 item d, Russian Criminal CodeArticle 280.1 part 2, Russian Criminal Code
- Case category
- Anti-war cases
- Verdict
- Ban on activity, Imprisonment (general regime), Mandatory community service
- Sentence
- 5 years
- Date of verdict
- 2017-08-23
- Region
- Volgograd Oblast
- City
- Kotelnikovo
- Facility
- ФКУ "ИК № 12 УФСИН России по Волгоградской области"
- Address for letters
- 404103, Волгоградская область, г. Волжский, ул. Александрова, 86, ФКУ "ИК № 12 УФСИН России по Волгоградской области", Мельников Василий Юрьевич, 1983 г.р.
Recognition by human rights organisations
- Recognised as a political prisonerby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 15 August 2023
- Recognised as a political prisonerby Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, 15 August 2023
This is the assessment of the organisation named above, not ours. FACTUM reports it with attribution and does not make its own.
Case summary
A resident of Kotelnikovsky District in the Volgograd Region, he was prosecuted for public calls to separatism following a post about the potential creation of a “Kotelnikovo Republic.” Melnikov pleaded guilty, and the case was heard under a special procedure. On 23 August 2017, he was sentenced to 320 hours of community service.
In July 2023, it emerged that Melnikov had been detained on charges of spreading false information about the Armed Forces. On 16 January 2024, he was sentenced to five years in a general-regime penal colony.
Others charged under Article 207.3 part 2 item d, Russian Criminal Code
What we write about political persecution
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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.
OVD-Info has been designated an «extremist» organisation in Russia — by decision of the Russian authorities, like other independent human rights and media projects.