Alexey Nikitin

Resident of Sergiev Posad (Moscow region). In March 2022, he went on a solitary picket outside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour with a poster with a quote from Leo Tolstoy's book "Christianity and Patriotism": "Patriotism is the renunciation of human dignity, reason, conscience and slavish submission of oneself to those in power". He was detained; law enforcers found the quote to be discrediting the Russian army and drew up a report on the activist under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences. In 2023, Nikitin walked along Novy Arbat street with a Ukrainian flag. "As this experiment showed, 98 per cent of people do not have any hatred towards Ukrainians, propaganda does not work as much as they try to convince us," he noted. After this action, according to the man, he began to receive threats. On May 7, 2024, law enforcers came to Nikitin's residence address and showed his relatives the man's search warrant. He himself is not in Russia.