Arkhangelsk student and SOTA’s journalist may be expelled from the university due to law enforcement’s pressure
Darya Poryadina had said that NAFU had not allowed her to switch to distance learning after she had left Russia with her boyfriend Alexander Peskov. At the end of March, the couple was searched in the case of extremism in connection with Alexei Navalny’s activities. Peskov is the former head of Navalny's headquarters* in Arkhangelsk.
According to the young woman, law enforcement officers began putting pressure on the university’s management so that she would be expelled if she did not return to Russia. In addition to the fact that she was not allowed to graduate from the university remotely and was not granted academic leave, she was not allowed to pass her last exam. Poryadina is supposed to complete her fourth year of journalism at NAFU in a month.
The young woman filed an appeal with Principal Elena Kudryashova and asked to transfer her to distance learning. Students, human rights advocates, and journalists had collected 240 signatures in support of Poryadina and handed them over to Kudryashova.
On March 22, opposition politician Alexei Navalny was sentenced to nine years in a high-security prison. He was accused of fraud and contempt of a court.
After that, security forces came to Navalny's supporters with searches and seizures because of cases on extremism. In Arkhangelsk, in addition to SOTA’s journalists, law enforcement officers searched activist Ilya Lashukov, ex-coordinator of local Navalny's headquarters* Elizaveta Bychkova, and social activist Olga Shkolina, who supports political prisoners. Bychkova and Shkolina’s status has already been changed from witnesses to suspects.
Besides, a criminal case was opened against Alexander Peskov for insulting a representative of authority during a search and seizure. After he left Russia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put the journalist on the federal wanted list.