Valerii Kachin

Scientist-geodesist. In the past an employee of the Birobidzhan Mayor's Office, an employee of the "Bastak" Nature Reserve. Showed support for Ukraine, Alexei Navalny and protests in Belarus via social media. Detained in Birobidzhan, presumably in autumn 2022, taken to Moscow, where he was taken into custody on charges of treason. It is unknown what exactly the scientist was accused of. He himself wrote from the detention centre that the state "took offence" at him because of his "position on Ukraine and what is happening now". He also mentioned some kind of provocation and that he told law enforcers that in his case it would be enough to have a preventive conversation with him, rather than initiate a case, to which the answer was: "I'm sorry, such is the time". On January 27, 2025, a court in Birobidzhan sentenced Kachin to 14 years in a strict regime colony.