Activist who drew attention to Wagner Group burials in Krasnodar Krai town leaves Russia after threats
Vitaly Votanovsky, an activist from Krasnodar Krai who used Telegram to draw public attention to the high number of Wagner Group mercenaries being buried in the town of Bakinskaya, has reportedly left the country.
“I’ve left Russia. I’m starting over,” Votanovsky told the outlet Protokol. After he first started publishing photos of graves in Bakinskaya, the activist reportedly received multiple threats, including from someone at a funeral agency who told him he should purchase a gravesite because “death might suddenly overtake him.”
Votanovsky previously served as a volunteer with Alexey Navalny’s team of anti-corruption activists. After the start of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, Votanovsky was fined for “discrediting” the Russian army after he posted an image that said “No to war” on Telegram.
