On April 21, 2025, the pro-government outlet RIA Novosti reported the discovery of a “group of students with left-wing radical views” at Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU).
They reported that Artyom Pronko, a university student, had been charged with “violating the rules for holding a rally” under an administrative offense, in connection with an installation that appeared on March 24 on the monument to Count Uvarov.
Government-affiliated media and the police accused Pronko of being a member of the Trotskyist student cell “Workers’ Power,” claiming that the membership of all group participants had been established.
Notably, they accused the group of “entering into an international alliance with a leadership center in the United Kingdom,” labeling them as “pro-British sympathizers” allegedly operating in the context of deteriorating relations between Russia and the UK.
On the same day, independent media reported that LETI student Stepan Timofeyev had been detained in connection with the same case, and an official report had been filed against him.
Several weeks later, the case escalated. On March 13, the Primorsky District Court fined 26-year-old Alexey Sidorov, a musician from the band Silver Machine, 20,000 rubles on charges akin to sedition — officially, “inciting hatred or enmity” (Article 20.3.1 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses) — with his membership in “Workers’ Power” cited as part of the justification for the verdict.
On May 15, searches were conducted in Saint Petersburg at the homes of individuals allegedly connected to the left-wing radical group “Workers’ Power”: Harry Azaryan, Oleg Rubish, Irada Ibragimova, Denis Koval, Sergey Kadnikov, and Kirill (last name not disclosed). The pretext was a criminal case under the article on “incitement to terrorism,” initiated against 23-year-old Kazakhstani student Harry Azaryan.
According to the Investigative Committee, Azaryan allegedly called for “terrorist activity and mass killings” during the group’s internal meetings. As “evidence,” investigators cited transcripts of speeches in which phrases such as “class hatred” and “revolution” were reportedly used.
The defendants had leaflets and brochures seized, including the Workers’ Power Manifesto, and were subjected to interrogations. Human rights advocates report that one of the detainees, identified as Kirill, was beaten while in custody. Some of the detainees were released with the status of witnesses — a designation that, as law enforcement reportedly warned, “can change at any moment.”
On May 16, 2025, by decision of the Krasnogvardeysky District Court of Saint Petersburg, Harry Azaryan was placed in pre-trial detention at SIZO-1 for a period of two months, starting that day.
According to “Workers’ Power” itself, materials from its congress were downloaded from one comrade’s account shortly before it was deactivated, and some documents were subsequently altered and falsified. Representatives of the group publicly stated that no unlawful statements or calls to action had ever been issued on their behalf.
Today, any form of student self-organization that operates outside the official hierarchy and expresses class-conscious views is automatically treated with suspicion. Politically motivated persecution, attempts to intimidate the student left, and to crush emerging forms of grassroots organizing are part of a broader campaign to suppress critical thought amid growing militarization and reaction.
We consider the case to be politically motivated and the accusations to be unfounded.
Freedom for Harry Azaryan and all defendants in the case!
