Garri Azarian

Student at St Petersburg State University. On 15 May 2025, he was detained on charges of calling for terrorism. The next day he was taken into custody. According to the investigators' version, he is a member of the radical movement "Workers Power" and called for terrorist activities and mass murder.

In mid-April 2025, the police detained Artem Pronko, a second-year student of the political science faculty of St. Petersburg State University, during classes. According to their version, he suspended a mannequin of the goddess of wisdom Minerva from the monument to Count Uvarov near the Twelve Colleges building. The figure was suspended by the neck from the leg of the monument. Nearby was a note: "Science is dead." Pronko claimed he had nothing to do with the action. He was fined 20 thousand rubles under the administrative article on organising an uncoordinated event (part 2 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

After the action, RIA "Novosti" reported that law enforcement agencies had identified a group of students with left-wing radical views, which was involved in the action. It was alleged that it was a cell of the UK-based left-radical Organisation of Communists-Internationalists called "Workers Power".

Friends of Garri Azarian deny information about his radical statements.

On 12 January 2026 Azarian's preventive measure was changed to prohibition of certain actions. On 11 February, the court sentenced him to two years in a colony settlement.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our database of politically motivated criminal prosecutions.