The event in question took place on March 11th, 2007, when three activists of the banned National Bolshevik Party led a protest at an Odintsovo polling station. Sergei Klimov, Vladimir Sidorin and the late Yury Chervochkin lit flares, chanted “These elections are a farce!” and handed out flyers demanding that all Russian political parties have a chance to participate in Parliamentary elections. The next day, the prosecutor’s office of the Moscow oblast launched a criminal case against them, and imprisoned the activists pending investigation. After a month behind bars, the three were released with a written pledge not to leave town. All of them had pled innocence.

Chervochkin, 23, a local leader of the National Bolshevik Party, began receiving threats from UBOP special forces after he was released. On November 22, 2007, on the eve of an opposition protest known as a “March of Dissent,” he was attacked and severely beaten near his home. He did not regain consciousness, and perished on December 10th, 2007. Shortly before the tragedy, he managed to make a call to the Sobkor®ru news agency, telling them that he was being followed by members of the UBOP special forces that he recognized from earlier encounters. The case against him was dropped after his death.

It was earlier reported that the prosecution had asked for 2.5 year sentences for each of the accused. Their own attorneys had said that there were no factual grounds in the case, and had asked for their immediate release.

Sergei Klimov spoke the final words before the trial was adjourned. He explained that he had never planned to break the law, and that his intention had been a peaceful political action. He underscored that elections in today’s Russia are not democratic, that the results are falsified, and that society must battle against such a system.

Chervochkin’s close associates implicated the UBOP Special Forces in his death. As the National Bolshevik website reported, UBOP officers had repeatedly threatened the youth. “Yury’s death symbolizes new times for the whole opposition. The authoritarian regime in Russia has irrevocably changed into a dictatorial one, and the first corpse of a political opponent has appeared before Putin’s successor,” a statement on the site said.

Yury Chervochkin was on the Parliamentary candidate list of the Other Russia opposition coalition for the Moscow Oblast. On November 22, 2007, he was violently beaten in the Moscow suburb of Serpukhov. He was found unconscious near the entranceway to his building. UBOP officers have claimed that Chervochkin was found in a different place, contradicting witnesses.

An hour before the attack, the young activist called into the editorial offices of the Sobkor®ru news agency, and told them that he was being watched by four UBOP agents. He recognized them from previous encounters, when he had been detained.

An investigation into the attack was only launched after Chervochkin died, much to the dismay and astonishment of family members. His mother, Nadezhda Chervochkina, was repeatedly turned away from militsiya offices, told that “no suspects have been apprehended,” and told that there was no inquiry taking place.

“They didn’t do anything for three weeks, and not they won’t let me bury my son. They are planning to keep him in the morgue for six months,” she told reporters.