Leonid Rybakov is an entrepreneur and civil activist from Tomsk. He has been engaged in civil activism since the late 2000s: He organizes and attends rallies, and participates in the work of opposition groups and organizations. The beginning of the “special operation” caused Leonid great distress: As a young man, he did his military service in Kharkov, and to this day he has friends in Ukraine. As a sign of protest, Mr. Rybakov hung a Ukrainian flag in his window along with a poster that read “Russia without Putin”, for which he was fined 40,000 roubles.

In response to the pressure from the authorities, Leonid said that he had no intention of paying the fine and was ready to be arrested. The criminal case against him was opened on June 15, 2022. In the morning, the Federal Security Service showed up to search his place: They took Leonid’s work laptop and all the technical equipment. What triggered his prosecution was a post in support of the Ukrainian Army, which Leonid allegedly published on his VKontakte page.

Currently the entrepreneur is facing criminal charges for “calls to extremism” (article 280, part 2). Because they have seized all of his electronics and his technical equipment, he is unable to work and has almost no money left. If he is convicted by the court, the 52-year-old activist would be facing up to 5 years in a penal colony.