The VKontakte Social Network (vk.com) has blocked the page of Violetta Grudina, the ex-head of Navalny's headquarters* in Murmansk, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. She published critical posts about the Russian military and special operation in Ukraine. Grudina reported this in her Telegram channel.
Activist Violetta Grudina’s account on vk.com has been blocked since July 8, 2022. The social network has done this at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office. The ex-head of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters* in Murmansk published posts about the special operation in Ukraine and criticized the Russian military’s actions.
Since the beginning of the war, vk.com has regularly blocked the accounts of opposition figures and people who speak out against what is happening. For example, the social network has blocked the accounts of activist Alexei Kolegov from Syktyvkar for an anti-war post, politician Lev Shlosberg’s wife and health worker Zhanna Shlosberg from Pskov, the Dovod (‘argument’) Media Outlet's (Vladimir) editor-in-chief Ilya Kosygin, social activist Dmitry Magerya from Smolensk, etc.
Violetta Grudina is a defendant in three criminal cases. The first one was initiated by the police in the autumn of 2021 due to violations of sanitary and epidemiological norms. According to investigators, the activist distributed election leaflets while being infected with coronavirus. The court selected a measure of restriction for her in the form of travel restrictions, but the young woman managed to leave the country. She has been arrested in absentia and is on the international wanted list.
In addition, she is a suspect in two more cases: on fakes about the army and organizing an extremist community.
