Pavel Chuprunov

Pavel Chuprunov
Павел Чупрунов
Chuprunov at the Russia Instead of Putin conference in 2018
Born	(1993-06-28) June 28, 1993
Citizenship	Russian
Education	Herzen University
Occupations	Opposition politician and civic activist

Pavel Chuprunov (Russian: Павел Чупрунов; born 28 June 1993) is a Russian opposition politician and civic activist.

He became known through litigation concerning the 2019 municipal election in Saint Petersburg. The proceedings resulted in the annulment of the election result in the district where he had sought to stand and the calling of a repeat election. He has also organised protests and founded civic projects supporting political prisoners and local residents.

After his detention at a rally in support of Alexei Navalny in January 2021 and subsequent attention from the police anti-extremism unit, Chuprunov left Russia and applied for protection in Sweden. SVT described him as an opposition politician active in local politics who had fled after persecution by Russian police. A Swedish migration court granted him protection in July 2022, reversing an earlier decision by the Swedish Migration Agency. He subsequently continued his public activity in Sweden, including as a representative of the Russian Anti-War Committee in Sweden.

Education and professional background

2017. Candidate information published for the 2019 municipal election states that Chuprunov completed his studies at Herzen University in Saint Petersburg in 2017. At the time of the election, he worked as an environmental engineer on sanitary protection zone projects. In 2017, he co-authored a paper on the geochemical condition of snow cover along Moskovsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg. The paper appeared in a conference volume published by Herzen University.

Political and civic activity in Russia

Early political activity, 2011–2014

2011–2012. In a 2019 interview, Chuprunov said that he had moved to Saint Petersburg for university studies in 2011 and became interested in elections and politics after being detained near a Strategy-31 demonstration. According to his account, he served as an election observer in the 2011 and 2012 elections.

On 6 May 2012, Chuprunov was included in OVD-Info's contemporaneous list of people detained at the March of Millions in Moscow. The list states that he was taken to the Fili-Davydkovo police station.

2014. In the same interview, Chuprunov said that he had attempted to register as a candidate in the 2014 municipal election but had been unsuccessful.

Early projects and police attention, 2018

2018. Chuprunov developed the satirical political board game Russia Without Putin? Its demonstration version consisted of about one hundred cards representing political actors divided into teams. Police seized the game and a rubber mask during a detention, but a court later ordered that the items be returned.

According to a 2021 report by Fontanka, contacts between Chuprunov and the police anti-extremism unit began in autumn 2018, after he attempted to organise a demonstration supporting defendants in the New Greatness and Network cases. The newspaper reported that the contacts continued in 2019 and 2021.

Municipal election and protests, 2019

2019. Chuprunov sought to stand in constituency No. 2 of the then Chernaya Rechka municipal district in the 2019 Saint Petersburg municipal election. The election commission issued him a candidate certificate but did not adopt a valid decision registering him. A court ordered the commission to consider his registration, but he was not placed on the ballot.

The dispute also drew the attention of Ella Pamfilova, chair of Russia's Central Election Commission. She criticised the Saint Petersburg Election Commission for its inaction and urged it to consider dissolving the local commission. The result that was later annulled covered five seats, including one held by Vasily Makarov, the brother of Vyacheslav Makarov, then speaker of the city's legislative assembly.

Before the election, the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Chuprunov's difficulties registering his candidacy. According to the report, he advocated greater transparency in municipal government, including video recordings of council meetings.

On 3 August, Chuprunov and Krasimir Vranski organised the authorised Piter za Moskvu demonstration in solidarity with protests for free elections in Moscow. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that more than 2,000 people attended.

Chuprunov's election campaign and his activity in Vesna were also featured in the 2019 Arte documentary Re: Die Unerschrockenen – Russlands Jugend rebelliert.

Litigation and civic projects, 2020

Chuprunov speaking through a megaphone during the Boris Nemtsov memorial march in Saint Petersburg on 29 February 2020.

2020. In January, a court annulled the result in the five-seat constituency where Chuprunov had attempted to stand. The court documents stated that the earlier decision concerning his registration had not been implemented.

That month, Chuprunov launched Uznik Online, a project connecting internet users with political prisoners. Messages submitted online were printed and sent to prisoners, whose replies were subsequently published online.

In February, Chuprunov was reported among those detained at a protest against proposed amendments to the Constitution of Russia. Later that month, he was among the initiators of the Saint Petersburg memorial march for Boris Nemtsov.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he organised assistance for elderly and isolated local residents through Komanda Chernoy Rechki. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that around ten people formed the core group and approximately thirty took part overall.

During the vote on amendments to the Russian constitution on 1 July, Chuprunov served as a voting member of local election commission No. 1802. He was removed from the polling station after requesting to observe the vote count. The commission stated that he lacked a negative COVID-19 test.

On 21 July, he was detained again in connection with the incident at the polling station. The following day, a district court sentenced him to ten days' administrative detention for disobedience of police. The Saint Petersburg City Court overturned the decision on 27 July, remitted the case and released him after six days in detention. The administrative case was later closed. In December, a district court separately rejected his request to declare his removal from the polling station unlawful.

In September, Chuprunov was reported as assisting residents who had complained about the reopening of the Novosyolki waste facility. Agentstvo Biznes Novostey reported that local residents had repeatedly approached him for help. In November, EANews reported that environmental authorities had found violations at the Karabashmed smelter after Chuprunov requested an inspection of its operations.

Police search, repeat election and departure, 2021

2021. In February, Novaya Gazeta described Chuprunov as a member of the Saint Petersburg council of Open Russia. The movement dissolved later that year to reduce the risk of criminal prosecution of people associated with it. He had been detained at a demonstration supporting Alexei Navalny in January.

During the detention, an altercation occurred in a police van when an OMON officer attempted to take his telephone. Kommersant reported that Chuprunov faced possible prosecution under Article 318 of the Russian Criminal Code, concerning violence against a state official.

On 6 February, police searched Chuprunov's registered address while he was elsewhere and seized computer equipment. According to Chuprunov and the occupants, the officers did not present a search warrant. Police later stated that simultaneous searches at more than thirty addresses concerned an investigation into roads being blocked during the 23 January protest.

Kommersant also reported that his parents were summoned for questioning after his departure.

Following continued attention from the anti-extremism unit, Chuprunov left Russia for Sweden, where he applied for protection.

The repeat election resulting from the 2019 litigation was held from 17 to 19 September. Chuprunov then led the informal local opposition group Komanda Chernoy Rechki, which supported candidates in the election. All five seats were won by candidates from United Russia.

Emigration and activity in Scandinavia

Protection and anti-war activity, 2021–2022

2021. In December, the Swedish Migration Agency rejected Chuprunov's application for protection, stating that he could seek protection from the Russian authorities.

Chuprunov at the Swedish Riksdag in 2022.

2022. The rejection was discussed on the editorial pages of Svenska Dagbladet. On 8 February, the newspaper's political editor-in-chief Tove Lifvendahl called on the agency to explain its decision; three days later, the paper published a response from the agency's director-general, Mikael Ribbenvik.

In March, Chuprunov appeared in the Swedish public-service radio programme Konflikt in an episode about opposition to Vladimir Putin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In April, he spoke at an anti-war demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm.

In spring 2022, Chuprunov participated as a Russian democracy activist in an open round-table discussion at the Riksdag on the political opposition in Russia. The event was jointly organised by the Riksdag delegations to the parliamentary assemblies of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and was attended by approximately fifty members of parliament and parliamentary staff. He presented a report entitled The Russian Opposition during the War with Ukraine in 2022.

Chuprunov appealed the Migration Agency's decision. In July, the migration court reversed it and granted him protection in Sweden. In August, he appeared in a Dagens Nyheter report about how Russian-speaking people in Sweden viewed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Public activity, 2023–2026

2023. The Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen described Chuprunov as one of the leaders of Vesna and reported that he had been granted political asylum in Sweden because the movement's members were persecuted by Russian authorities. Vesna had been banned in Russia as an “extremist organisation” in December 2022. In March, he visited Norway at the invitation of the Norwegian party Rødt. Its then leader, Bjørnar Moxnes, had nominated Vesna for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. In an interview with Dagsavisen, Chuprunov advocated targeted sanctions against individuals responsible for the war and military support for Ukraine.

2024. Chuprunov returned to Konflikt in an episode about the Russian opposition after Navalny's death.

2025. In January, he appeared in an episode of the same programme concerning Telegram's role for Russian critics of the government.

That month, the Russian-language community radio station Echo Sthlm reported that Chuprunov had been appointed as the Anti-War Committee's representative in Sweden within a support network for anti-war activists at risk of extradition or deportation. The committee's own website also listed him as a board member of the Swedish organisation Russians Against War and as a member of Vesna. Russian authorities had designated the Swedish organisation “undesirable” in Russia in 2022.

In December, the European Court of Human Rights delivered judgment in the joined case Drokin and Others v. Russia, which included Chuprunov's application no. 24538/19. The court found a violation of Article 10 and, in relation to his application, also found violations of Articles 5 § 1, 6 § 1 and 11 § 2, as well as Article 2 of Protocol No. 7. It awarded him €5,000.

2026. In March, Russia's Supreme Court designated the Anti-War Committee of Russia, whose support network Chuprunov had represented in Sweden, as a terrorist organisation and banned it in Russia. In August, Yle quoted Chuprunov as a representative of the Russian Anti-War Committee in Sweden in connection with the detention of a Russian couple in Sweden.