The journalist arrested for a comment about Dudayev complained about pressure in the pre-trial detention center.
Arrested in June 2026 for publicly justifying terrorism, journalist and author of the Telegram channel "Nothing will happen in Mari El" Alexey Seregin* reported that he is not receiving letters. He also complained about his poor psychological state.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in early June, a court in Yoshkar-Ola placed journalist Alexey Seregin* in a pre-trial detention center, who was detained for a comment about Dzhokhar Dudayev.
The reason for initiating the case was a comment about Dzhokhar Dudayev, "justifying illegal armed formations in Chechnya in the 1990s," left in 2024. Law enforcement detained the journalist on June 4 at a bus stop. During the detention, he was beaten and his phone was confiscated, after which he was taken home for a search.
Journalist Alexey Seregin* complained that in the first month of detention, he was not receiving letters at all, possibly to break him psychologically, writes the Telegram channel "Sokolov from Mari El".
The journalist also suffers from anxiety, depression, has speech and attention coordination issues, and sometimes experiences stupor; during court hearings, Alexey literally shakes. He has a disability group II, which requires constant treatment and monitoring by a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist at the pre-trial detention center changed the treatment regimen: it did not yield results, but they refused to hospitalize Alexey. The journalist was sent for a forensic psychiatric examination at the Serbsky Institute to determine whether he was sane at the time of committing the "crime," which he does not admit to.
During the preliminary psychiatric examination in Yoshkar-Ola, doctors doubted his sanity when he spoke about torture during his detention. The court ignored Alexey's arguments that due to his health condition, he cannot be in a pre-trial detention center, just as he cannot escape from house arrest.
"To explain the bruises on my body, which I received in the pre-trial detention center, the police fabricated an administrative case against me - disobedience to lawful demands of police officers. At the trial for this administrative case, the judge rejected eight of my motions that could demonstrate the police's lies. I requested an ambulance because I was shaking, had severe anxiety, but the paramedic at the pre-trial detention center measured my blood pressure and said I was healthy. I was fined two thousand rubles," the journalist's words are reported by the Telegram channel.
The journalist also reported that in June, a second criminal case was opened against him for failure to fulfill the duties of a foreign agent - due to a post that hung without labeling for a few minutes.
"I need help primarily in publicizing what is happening to me now. If I am forgotten on the outside, I will be killed behind bars," Alexey Seregin* reported.
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* included in the foreign agents register.
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