The Kirovsky District Court of Yekaterinburg sentenced 70-year-old mathematician Mikhail Volkov to a fine of 300 thousand rubles in a case of financing extremist activities, reported «Mediazona»***. The prosecution requested a fine of 600 thousand rubles. Mikhail Volkov was under a travel ban. He fully admitted his guilt.
The criminal case was initiated on April 3, 2025. During a search in the apartment, law enforcement officers seized Mikhail Volkov's equipment, as well as a homemade poster with photographs of Alexei Navalny**** and Leonid Volkov with the inscription «Freedom for Leonid Volkov», stickers with the inscription «Navalny», and campaign badges from Navalny's presidential campaign.
A month and a half before the search, Mikhail Volkov was dismissed from the Ural Federal University, where he headed the Department of Algebra and Discrete Mathematics.
In court, Volkov refused to testify. During interrogations at the Investigative Committee, he explained that he subscribed to FBK's recurring payments because he considered it safe, and the foundation's anti-corruption investigations did not seem to him as «extremism».
In his final statement, Mikhail Volkov asked to consider that he was already seriously punished. «I had to leave the university, leave the work to which my entire life was dedicated. My 70th anniversary was marked not by an award from the rector, not by a scientific conference in my honor, but by the delivery of an indictment in the office of the FSB investigator».
* Listed as a «terrorist and extremist», recognized as a «foreign agent».
** Recognized in Russia as an «extremist organization».
*** Recognized in Russia as a «foreign agent».
**** Listed as a «terrorist and extremist».
Photo: Mediazona