Activists announce disappearance of Sochi resident after arrest

Nikolai Zimirev, a resident of Sochi who has attracted law enforcers' attention with an action in memory of Alexei Navalny, has not been in contact for five days after his detention. Today, the district court released information about an administrative case against Zimirev.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 18, Sochi residents reported that near Alexei Navalny's spontaneous memorial law enforcers were on the round-the-clock duty and questioned those who brought flowers. Besides, policemen regularly cleared the monument of flowers, activist Grigory Uchkurov stated with indignation.

Nikolai Zimirev, a Russian cross-country skiing champion and coach, has not been in touch for several days, Alipat Sultanbegova, an activist, has reported in the X social network. "Nikolai brought flowers to the memorial on February 17; [law enforcers] detained him, but then released him without drawing up a protocol. A few days later he was called to the police station, allegedly to sign the papers that he had no complaints. Since then there has been no information about him," Alipat has written.

"Zimirev was detained under the article of demonstrating prohibited symbols," the human rights project "OVD-Info"* has reported in its Telegram channel.

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.