Violetta Grudina

Former coordinator of Alexei Navalny's headquarters in Murmansk.

On 9 July 2021, it became known that a case of violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules was brought against Grudina: according to the investigation, she distributed leaflets while sick with coronavirus. Rospotrebnadzor employees and police officers came to her to send her to hospital. On 14 July, the court decided on forced hospitalisation. Grudina went on hunger strike. On 2 August she was discharged from the hospital due to a negative test for coronavirus, but immediately after leaving the building she was detained. The investigation applied for a measure of restraint in the form of a ban on certain actions, but the court refused. On the same day, Natalia Zamorskaya, the coordinator of her campaign headquarters, was detained at the airport, but was released at night after a search of her personal belongings. Grudina was given a custodial sentence and her home was searched. On August 23, she was interrogated as a witness in the case of creating an organization that infringes on the identity and rights of citizens, brought against Alexei Navalny and his associates. In October, the insurance company, where Grudina had a policy of compulsory medical insurance, was billed about 200 thousand rubles for forced hospitalisation. On 29 December it became known that Grudina was put on a wanted list. IIn June, Grudina reported that she had left Russia and was put on the international wanted list and that she had been arrested in absentia. According to her data, two more cases were opened against her: on organising the activities of an extremist community (as part of the case against Navalny and his associates) and on spreading deliberately false information about the Russian Armed Forces.