The Palace Case. Five Stories

A year before the war, Russia experienced a wave of mass protests triggered by the arrest of Alexei Navalny, a politician detained upon his return to Russia after an assassination attempt by FSB agents. Protesters and allies of Navalny fell under the weight of repression. Over 180 people from various parts of the country faced criminal prosecution, many organizations were forced to shut down, and a wave of political emigration began.

The domestic repression served as a foundation for the onset of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, suppressing the voices of those who could have spoken out against it. OVD-Info tells the stories of the participants in the Palace Case, the most massive politically motivated criminal campaign in Russia before the war. We produced a documentary about five individuals: IT developer Alexander Federyakov, student Anastasia Ponkina, university teacher Victoria Novikova, taxi driver Valery Evsin, and blogger Vladimir Egorov. Political scientist Ekaterina Shulman and lawyer Mikhail Biryukov provide commentary.

We made this film to draw attention to all political prisoners in Russia and to show how people who found the courage to protest are living.