It was early in the morning when Darja Heikinen, 18, woke up at home in St. Petersburg to the sounds coming from the front door. Someone tried to break in.
From the door camera, he saw a group of men in helmets and masks behind the door. The helmet read SOBR, which stands for Russian Police Special Forces.
Heikinen immediately communicated to other opposition activists and his parents what had happened. Then he opened the door.
– They started kicking the door and I decided to open it so that I didn’t have to install a new one, Heikinen says in ‘s video interview.
Special forces struck Heikinen’s home on Saturday, March 6th. Russia had begun its invasion of Ukraine nine days earlier. Now it had begun to capture the opponents of the war.
For the next two hours, police conducted a search of the home. At the end, they took Heikinen to interrogation for interrogation. Heikinen learned that he was suspected of “telephone terrorism”, that is, that he had made an undue bomb threat to the mall.
The maximum penalty for the act is five years’ imprisonment.
Heikki started to get scared when he heard about the crime. It was completely untrue, he said. He had not organized any bomb threats.
According to Heikinen, before the war, criminal cases even had some connection to reality. Activists were accused of setting up an extremist organization or organizing an illegal demonstration.
– Now they just come up with the whole thing, Heikinen says.
According to Heikinen, the fabricated criminal case against him is just one example of how much Russia has changed since the war began. The regime is now trying to silence opponents of the war in every possible way.
Heikinen wants to give the interview in his own name. has estimated that this can be done.
According to Darja Heikinen, at least 30 St. Petersburg activists are suspected in a criminal case related to “telephone terrorism”.
They represent different movements and worldviews, Heikinen says. The only thing that unites the suspects is that everyone has opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Heikinen was only captured by police special forces the day before Russia had a large demonstration day. It had been convened by the opposition leader of the imprisoned Alexei Navalnyin movement.
Meanwhile, police visited more than 80 activists.
Heikinen believes that the purpose of the arrests and the criminal case was not only to curb the number of participants in the protest, but also to seize the activists’ phones and other equipment. Due to a telephone terrorism investigation, Heikinen’s phone, computer and memory cards are still with the police.
– Even now I’m talking on my big brother’s old phone. I can’t afford new equipment.
This is how Heikinen describes the humiliating situation he faced as soon as he arrived in the remand prison. The suspects were ordered to undress naked and squat.
Heikinen says he is lucky. He eventually spent two long days in the remand prison awaiting an attorney meeting and interrogation. The interrogation was superficial and the treatment was largely objective.
– The police even showed some concern at first. Perhaps because they understood well that the charges had nothing to do with what they wrote in the interrogation report.
Heikinen heard the most severe threat before, during the search.
At that time, one of the police had come to Heikinen. He said he was greeting the leader of Chechnya in Russia From Ramzan Kadyrov.
Heikinen interpreted the message as a warning. He had made videos just a few weeks earlier highlighting the latest abuses by the brutal leader.
Kadyrov’s tentacles extend deep into Russia’s law enforcement machinery.
– Of course, the warning does not affect me and I do not intend to follow it, Heikinen says.
Russia’s attack has pushed opposition activists very tight.
The Duma, the Russian parliament, has enacted new laws that have made the dissemination of “false” information about the armed forces punishable.
Any claim that deviates from the official propaganda of the state can be interpreted as false information. Even the use of the word war is possible to punish, as there is officially a “special operation” going on in Ukraine.
– Those who understand what is happening are scared and desperate. Many opposition movements have stopped or suspended their operations, Heikinen says.
– This is horrible and sad, of course, but we have to find ways to use something and convey information to people. We even found detours in Tiktok.
Heikinen’s Majak movement is still considering how it can continue to operate when it is forbidden to talk about war.
On Instagram, it has advised people to donate money to independent media and draw graffiti that demands peace. The word war is not used in the updates.
Telephone terrorism is punishable by 3 to 5 years in prison. The lightest penalty is a fine of half a million rubles, equivalent to about 4,400 euros. The amount is huge for Darja Heikinen, who is suffering from a lack of money.
Heikinen himself believes that the whole lawsuit will collapse in the coming months and he will not be convicted at all.
– The judiciary is not yet so fond of the idea that people can only be staged guilty without any evidence.
This may also be indicated by the fact that Heikinen was eventually released without pre-trial detention or its major travel bans or house arrest.
Still, the possibility of a prison sentence exists. Many Russian political prisoners, such as opposition leader Alexei Navalnyi, have been sentenced on arbitrary grounds.
The situation is very stressful for the activist.
– I don’t know where I am tomorrow. Then there may be a search in my home again and I may disappear from others for many days. In these circumstances, it is difficult to do anything useful at all.
This week, the pressure increased again. On the night between Thursday and Friday, someone had gone to his door stumbling on the text “traitor” and brought manure to the door. The next night more manure appeared. At that time, a note was affixed to the door, according to which a “Finnish Nazi” lived in the apartment.
The doors of many anti-war activists have been vandalized in similar ways.
The stupid may have been inspired by the president Vladimir Putin. In his speech last week, he demanded that Russia cleanse itself of garbage and traitors.
Heikinen says he doesn’t pay much attention to Putin’s sayings because he considers them absurd.
– I don’t feel like a traitor, he’s probably talking about someone else.
Heikinen has asked his followers for money for new equipment and is thinking of new ways to continue his activism. He is driven forward by anger.
Many opposition activists have left Russia in recent weeks. Heikinen is going to stay.
– Of course I don’t want to go to jail, but I don’t see myself anywhere other than in Russia. I knew from the beginning where activism could lead.
Heikinen does not like the idea that all Russians are in any way responsible for the war because they have not stopped the Putin regime.
– It is a discouraging idea and unfair to those of us who stay here and try to do everything we can against the Putin regime.