Ivan Astashin

On the night of 20 December 2009, on the eve of the "Day of the Security Worker", a group of young men (Astashin, Povazhnaya, Markhai, Lebedev and Ivanov) threw Molotov cocktails at the building of the Federal Security Service Department for the South-West District of Moscow. As a result of these actions there were no casualties, the damage to the premises amounted to 11 thousand roubles. The video of the action was posted by Astashin on the Internet under the title "Happy Chekist's Day, bastards!". The participants positioned the arson as a "non-violent direct action against the FSB", an act of political protest.

Over the next few months, a series of arson attacks on police stations and market stalls took place in Moscow and the Moscow region by a group of nationalists who positioned them as "direct action against the Ministry of Internal Affairs and ethno-criminals". Some members of both groups knew each other.

Astashin and a participant in the action "Happy Chekist Day..." Ksenia Povazhnaya were detained on 12 March 2010 by FSB officers, tortured for several days, and then released on their own recognisance.

After the attempted departure and repeated detention on 28.12.2010, Astashin and Povazhnaya were placed in custody.

The cases were initially qualified as property damage (article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), then as hooliganism (article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and finally as a terrorist act (article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In addition to the action "Happy Chekist Day..." Astashin was charged with organising seven arson attacks on police stations and shopping tents, which were allegedly carried out on his instructions, blowing up a Lexus car and attempting to mine the Eastern Thermal Power Plant in Perovo.

According to the investigation, "in December 2009, Astashin and other members of the group decided to commit arson of the building of the South-West Administrative District Department of the Russian Federal Security Service Administration in Moscow, as a result of which the authorities of the Russian Federation would be forced to make decisions on changing the internal national policy, believing that these issues belong, among others, to the competence of the Federal Security Service"

On 12 April 2012, the Moscow City Court sentenced Astashin to 13 years in a strict regime penal colony with restriction of freedom for 2 years.

On 23 July 2012, the Supreme Court reduced this sentence to 12 years 6 months with restriction of freedom for 2 years.

On 21 August Astashin was sent to penal colony 17 of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service, where he faced threats of violence and use of psychotropic substances. After a motion to familiarise himself with the case materials, he was transferred back to the pre-trial detention centre in Moscow.

On 11 December 2013, the Supreme Court considered Astashin's supervisory appeal, reduced his sentence to 9 years 9 months in a strict regime penal colony and removed the restriction of freedom.

In Moscow, Astashin wrote complaints about threats and demanding a confession in corrective labour colony № 17, after consideration of which he was transferred to corrective labour colony № 5 Norilsk, where he continued to write complaints about violations of his rights and the rights of other prisoners, and began to write analytical articles about the prison.

After 5 years he was transferred back to corrective labour colony № 7 in Krasnoyarsk region.

On the administrative claim of the camp chief, the Sovetsky District Court of Krasnoyarsk sentenced Astashin to 8 years of administrative supervision.

On 21 September 2020 Astashin was released after the main term. He continued to write complaints about the conditions of detention in corrective labour colony № 17 and corrective labour colony № 5, and started human rights activities in the "Committee for Civil Rights".

In August 2022, Astashin left Russia.

He is one of the founders of the project to support those persecuted for anti-war actions "Solidarity Zone". In December 2024, his participation in the project was terminated.

In February 2024 it became known that Astashin was put on a wanted list. In May, Astashin himself wrote that, to his knowledge, a case of public justification of terrorism had been brought against him. He was arrested in absentia.

In August 2024, Mediazona reported that the materials of the case against Astashin include the testimony of a former tourist police officer, who claims that in 2021 he was at a certain "flat party" near Elektrozavodskaya metro station, where a man who introduced himself as Ivan Astashin showed everyone the namesake of his Telegram channel and claimed to be its sole owner. Apparently, the investigation needed this testimony to prove that the Ivan Astashin Telegram channel, which published a post about the attempted assassination of Zakhar Prilepin, which was the reason for the criminal case, really belongs to Astashin. The human rights defender claims that he has never seen this former employee and has never been to the flats in the Elektrozavodskaya neighbourhood.