Artem Samsonov

According to OVD-Info

Former CPRF member of the Primorsky Krai Legislative Assembly. The criminal case against the deputy was initiated in November 2021: two months before that, the local branch of the CPRF, which he headed, won the elections to the regional parliament in 8 out of 11 polling stations in Vladivostok.

According to the investigation, the politician showed a dildo and told about the purpose of the object to an 11-year-old boy, whose family was staying at the same recreation centre.

The prosecution believes that Samsonov committed the crime in July 2018 in a tent camp on a wild beach, where the boy was holidaying with his father Nikolai Koldaev. Initially, Koldaev claimed that he put up the tent in June and did not remove it until September. However, the defence managed to prove that the family put up the tent in the camp only in August. Then Koldaev changed his testimony: according to the new version, he put up the tent in June, but then repeatedly removed it for repairs.

The reason for the initiation of criminal proceedings was the statement of the deputy Irina Safonova, an acquaintance of Samsonov, who is in a relationship with the father of the boy injured in the case. Previously, Samsonov had set up a tent camp on a wild beach, but because of his employment in the party, he handed over the place of informal leader of the camp to Safonova.

"Mediazona" reported that there was a conflict between them: Safonova decided to take money from holidaymakers at the closed beach; the deputy himself wanted it to be a free urban space. The publication notes that the woman repeatedly wrote statements against Samsonov with the wording "walking naked and campaigning for Navalny".

Mediazona journalists also relay the lawyers' version: "dildos - in large quantities and repeatedly - were brought to the beach by Safonova herself". The defence lawyers interviewed more than a dozen witnesses who confirmed this information and provided relevant photos and videos.

In September 2022, Samsonov was sentenced to 13 years in a strict regime colony on charges of violent acts of a sexual nature against a person under the age of fourteen (item "b" part 4 of article 132 of the Criminal Code). On 27 February the regional court sent the case for a new hearing and transferred the deputy from the pre-trial detention centre to house arrest. However, in early May, the court of cassation cancelled the decision to cancel the verdict, and Samsonov was again placed in the detention centre.

On 24 May 2023, the court banned Samsonov from communicating with his family.

In November 2023, it became known that Samsonov's lawyers were penalised because of posts about his case.

In January 2024, it was reported that Samsonov was banned from working in the colony's library - presumably because he talks about violations in the colony and his life there.

In June 2025, the court denied the request of the Primorsky Krai Department of the Penitentiary Service hospital to release Samsonov, despite the fact that he was diagnosed a skin cancer. This disease is included in a list of diseases that obstruct serving a sentence.