"We're being tried nonstop." The founders of an independent Omsk media outlet have had their passports revoked. Now they can't appeal their inclusion on the extremist registry.

Russian internal passports cancelled у Daniil Chebykin и Richard Roman King, who are the founders of the Omsk Civic Association. The Ministry of Internal Affairs took this action unilaterally: the documents continue to be held by their owners, who fled abroad due to political persecution.

This is actually very scary.,” Richard Roman King told NeMoskva. Now we are trying to challenge it in court. inclusion Our organization has been added to the extremist list, and we can't do anything. We can't even get a power of attorney for a lawyer or access the case materials. We're being tried nonstop, and we can't defend ourselves.

Due to the cancellation of their passports, both media founders lost access to their bank accounts, SIM cards, and many social networks.

According to Richard Roman King, his passport was revoked back in January. Chebykin's happened earlier.

I contacted various human rights activists and even sent a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs asking for clarification on the basis of my passport's revocation, but I still haven't received a response. An embassy employee even advised Chebykin to obtain a certificate of return and "resolve his problems at home."

The case of the OGO! founders has become especially relevant in the context of the new bill on the confiscation of passports from Russian citizens.

Now Russia will officially allow this to be done in its consulates, although in reality this has been done for a long time, — emphasized Richard Roman King. — And we decided to take this opportunity to remind everyone that we can't continue in this situation; we need at least some kind of documentation. We hope this news will spread and the question of what Russians should do in such situations will be raised.