‘Open Russia’ director arrested immediately after release from Moscow jail

Andrey Pivovarov, the executive director of the organization Open Russia, was arrested at the exit of a special detention facility in Moscow, where he had just finished serving 14 days administrative arrest, reports the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. 

Pivovarov published a video from the police van on his Telegram channel, explaining that he was arrested by officers from the Anti-Extremism Center (Center E). The officers didn’t give a reason for his arrest or say where they were taking him, Pivovarov says in the video.

According to the Khodorkovsky Center, Pivovarov will be held overnight and face another trial for organizing unauthorized protests on Friday, September 18.

Moscow’s Tversky Court sentenced Pivovarov to administrative arrest for collecting signatures petitioning changes to the constitution in Moscow on July 15. The Court declared that Pivovarov “voluntarily assumed responsibility for organizing” an unauthorized rally, because he published a post about the collection of signatures on Facebook.