Moscow court moves two teenage ‘extremist group’ suspects to house arrest, following public backlash

Moscow’s courts have agreed to transfer Anna Pavlikova and Maria Dubovik to house arrest, granting a request by state prosecutors filed hours before hundreds of people demonstrated against the teenagers’ incarceration on August 15. Police arrested Pavlikova and Dubovik in March for allegedly belonging to the “Novoe Velichie” (New Greatness) extremist movement.

While in jail, Pavlikova and Dubovik reportedly developed serious illnesses, leading Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova and Presidential Human Rights Council Chairman Mikhail Fedotov to call for their release.

Pavlikova and Dubovik’s mothers previously published a video appeal to Vladimir Putin, demanding that he order their daughters’ release and punish the officers who “framed” them. The mothers also accuse the police of fabricating evidence against their children. “Do you really have no other enemies than my daughter?” Pavlikova’s mother asks in the video. According to the websites OVD-Info and Medizazona, police had at least one officer embedded undercover in the movement.