Czech man freed after 13-day detention over Moscow Red Square protest

A Czech man detained in Russia after staging a solo protest near Lenin’s Mausoleum on Moscow’s Red Square has been released and has left the country, the Czech Foreign Ministry confirmed Sunday.

The man was released Saturday after serving 13 days in administrative detention, ministry spokesman Adam Čörgő told ČTK. According to the ministry’s information, the Czech citizen subsequently left Russian territory.

A Moscow court sentenced the man in September after Russian authorities said he displayed an English-language sign intended to “discredit” the Russian armed forces. He was also ordered to pay two fines totaling 60,000 rubles, approximately CZK 15,000.

The protest took place near Lenin’s Mausoleum on Red Square, next to the Kremlin. Russian authorities prohibit public gatherings in the area because of its proximity to the Russian president’s residence.

According to the court’s account reported by Interfax, security forces detained the Czech citizen after he staged the solo protest. Authorities said he subsequently refused an order to accompany officers to a police station and resisted arrest.

The court found him guilty of three administrative offenses: discrediting the Russian military, violating regulations governing protests and disobeying police orders. He received a fine of 40,000 rubles for one offense and another of 20,000 rubles, in addition to the 13-day detention. 

The Czech Embassy in Moscow had been aware of the case and provided the detained citizen with consular assistance from the outset. The Foreign Ministry previously declined to provide further details, citing the sensitivity of the case. Expats.cz previously reported on the man's detention

Russia introduced legislation targeting what authorities describe as the “discrediting” of the country’s armed forces and the dissemination of “false information” about the military shortly after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The measures have been widely used against public expressions of opposition to the war. Russian authorities can consider information that contradicts Moscow’s official account of military activities to be false.

In the Czech man’s case, Russian authorities said the message displayed on his sign was intended to discredit the armed forces, though the exact wording of the sign was not disclosed in reports about the case.

With his 13-day sentence now completed, the Czech Foreign Ministry says the man has successfully left Russia.