An activist challenged Russian officials after they blocked his protest against election fraud. Now he’s been jailed on drug charges and accused of ‘involvement in a Ukrainian armed group.’

A court in Izhevsk ordered local activist Dmitry Morozov held in pretrial detention for two months on charges of possessing a large quantity of drugs. He is accused of possessing 0.38 grams of mephedrone, Kommersant — Udmurtia reported.The prosecutor also said that “there is information about Dmitry Morozov’s involvement in a Ukrainian armed group.” No further details have been disclosed.Morozov is a democratic socialist from Udmurtia. He tried to organize a rally in Izhevsk against fraud in the State Duma elections. After city authorities rejected his application, Morozov and like-minded activists sued Izhevsk City Hall and appealed to the presidential administration. The court ordered city authorities to reconsider his application.Morozov was detained on October 2 and denied access to a lawyer for more than 24 hours.At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.