The court appointed pensioner Leonid Ladanov 316 thousand rubles of compensation for prosecution in a criminal case. He was accused of fictitious registration of Lithuanians who came to the village of Galyashor to clean up the graves of the victims of Stalin’s terror. This was reported on the Public Verdict Human Rights Project’s website.
70-year-old pensioner Leonid Ladanov won a payout of more than 316 thousand for prosecution in a criminal case on fictitious registration of foreigners. In 2019, Leonid Ladanov hosted Lithuanians in the village of Galyashor, who came together with Memorial’s employees and volunteers from other countries. They recorded interviews with local residents and cleaned up on the graves of relatives repressed during Stalin era.
Policemen, employees of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the FSB came to the cemetery on the expedition's last day. Five Lithuanians, Memorial, and the head of the organization’s branch in Perm were accused of seizing the forest and fined 350 thousand rubles. The court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles on Ladanov for fictitious registration of the foreigners. But human rights advocates appealed against all the decisions of the courts, they found no corpus delicti in Ladanov’s case.
The court appointed him 200 thousand of compensation for moral harm and more than 116 thousand of compensation for property damage for the fine paid.
Russian activists often managed to win payouts of compensations against the police and other agencies. For example, the court appointed Alexander Zykov, the ex-head of Navalny’s headquarters in Kostroma, 100 thousand rubles of compensation from the UK. The police opened a criminal case against him for evading military service. But the activist had medical documents releasing him from service.