Vladimir Vorontsov

Vorontsov is a former police officer. In 2017, he created a public forum "Police Ombudsman" on the social network "VKontakte", where he published information about violations in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He resigned almost immediately afterwards. Some of the revelations published on the forum led to the resignations of head officials at various levels. On 8 April 2020, an administrative case was initiated against Vorontsov for abuse of freedom of mass information in connection with the publication about the coronavirus. On 14 April, he was searched in a criminal case on dissemination of knowingly false information posing a threat to life and safety. Vorontsov was questioned and released as a witness. On 7 May, he was detained in an extortion case. The court decided to take him into custody. Later it became known that a case of distribution of pornography was also initiated against Vorontsov, and after that, another case of insulting a representative of the authorities. By August 2020, according to the Russian News Agency TASS, more than ten cases had been initiated against Vorontsov, some of which did not reach the court. On 2 August 2022, Vorontsov was sentenced to five years in a general regime penal colony.