The song that stopped being the USSR’s anthem in 1944 is now landing Russian activists in prison for ‘terrorism’

The Central District Court of Novosibirsk ordered activist and human rights advocate Larisa Mikhailova held for two months, the Telegram channel of the Agrarian Council movement reported. The hearing was closed to the public, and it remains unknown what charges she faces.

Earlier on the morning of August 13, security forces conducted a three-hour search of Mikhailova’s apartment. “FSB and riot police officers broke in. Almost immediately, after just knocking, they started cutting through the door,” her daughter said.

Mikhailova’s daughter later told the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo that Mikhailova had been charged with publicly calling for terrorist activity online (Part 2, Article 205.2 of Russia’s Criminal Code). The maximum sentence under this charge is seven years.

According to her daughter, a lawyer told her that the charge against Mikhailova was likely related to a mention of “The Internationale,” the communist hymn that also served as the Soviet anthem until 1944. The daughter said she was unable to explain exactly what the alleged crime consisted of.

Mikhailova’s daughter believes her mother’s detention was “payback” for her active civic stance. Earlier this year, the activist covered a mass slaughter of livestock in the Novosibirsk region and helped local farmers defend their rights.

This is not the first terrorism-incitement case involving “The Internationale,” Agentstvo said. In June of this year, Altai Republic activist Aruna Arna was sentenced to five years in a penal colony. The case stemmed from changes she made to the anthem’s lyrics: she added curses directed at “killers of the people” and “killers of Russia.” In October 2025, a case was opened against Kamchatka activist Vasilya Vershinina over publishing “The Internationale.”

Both activists are supporters of Svetlana Lada-Rus (Peunova), founder of the Samara folk medicine center Put k Solntsu (“Path to the Sun”) and the disbanded Volya party. In November 2025, she was sentenced in absentia to eight years in a penal colony. She was found guilty of creating an organization whose activities included harming citizens’ health, committing fraud, and causing grievous bodily harm through negligence.

Earlier, Larisa Mikhailova said that “the Agrarian Council’s team is Svetlana Lada-Rus’s team.” In the same text, the founder of the Volya party was also called “Putin’s real rival.”