Ruslan Sokolovsky

Affiliated media: Video blogger

Incident date: June 25, 2020

Attack type:

• Pressure on a media worker via non-physical pressure on relatives and loved ones

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Sota.Vision

Location: Russia, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Yekaterinburg

Additional information:

Ruslan Sokolovsky, the blogger from Yekaterinburg, said that all of his relatives were visited by the Centre for Combating Extremism employees. According to Sokolovsky, law enforcement officers were finding out information about him. Claims arose about one of Sokolovsky's videos, a tweet, a post in VKontakte social network, and a publication on his personal website. Sokolovsky's lawyer assumes that a civil lawsuit for protection of honor and dignity was filed against him. Two variants of events are assumed: either the blogger will be charged under the criminal article on libel, or the case is the recognition of several materials as extremist in the administrative case. In 2017, Sokolovsky received a conditional sentence for «extremism», «insulting the feelings of religious believers», and possession of a pen with a video camera.