On August 5, individuals in Cossack uniforms arrived at Sandarmokh to prevent activists and foreign diplomats from honoring the victims of Stalin's Great Terror, as reported by the Telegram channel "From Karelia with freedom."
Unknown individuals brought loudspeakers and played military songs to drown out the reading of the names of those executed at Sandarmokh. Near the memorial, a stall was set up with a banner detailing the destruction of monuments dedicated to Soviet soldiers in Poland. There was also a plaque that read, "Finns, do you support the Nazis again? Hasn't history taught you anything?"
Additionally, a leaflet featuring a photo of Emilia Slabunova, a deputy of the Karelian Legislative Assembly, was attached to a tree at Sandarmokh. The leaflet read, "Why are you always nearby where there is Nazism, LGBT, and pedophilia?"
The day before, Slabunova published a critical response to the media outlet "Capital on Onego," which characterized the commemorative events at Sandarmokh as an "anti-Russian flash mob." The outlet disapproved of activists reading the names of executed Ukrainians and bringing Ukrainian flags.
On August 5, law enforcement officers visited Andrey Litvin and Alexey Trunov, two activists who were planning to attend the Day of Remembrance of the Great Terror Victims at Sandarmokh. Trunov reported that the Federal Security Service (FSB) confiscated his laptop and phone. It remains unclear whether he is involved in a specific legal case or if there is any case at all.
The activists have experienced pressure on previous occasions. Trunov was fined for an anti-war comment, and Litvin faced administrative charges for discrediting the army after attending last year’s Remembrance Day at Sandarmokh with a Ukrainian flag.
