Resistance cannot be locked away behind bars

Andrey Veryanov, who is serving a sentence in Russia for “terrorism and high treason” due to ties to the Freedom of Russia Legion, faces new charges.

Source: Sword in the Dark

FSB is playing its favorite charade once again. It has now announced that Andrey Veryanov, a fifty-five-year-old archaeologist already serving nearly a quarter-century in prison, “tested air defense weaknesses” using homemade drones and “planned to blow up the plane of a high-ranking official.” Which one? “A secret,” of course. To let the imagination run wild.

After all, only yesterday he was being tried for “mere” high treason and terrorism—due to his connection to the Freedom of Russia Legion. That was enough to get him years in prison and a fine that an ordinary person cannot even imagine.

Who is Andrey Veryanov really?

A man with a colorful life. Twenty years in Peru—geophysics, archaeology, Incan heritage, research in Sacsayhuamán. The first work with high-performance ground-penetrating radar in the region. He is not a militant. He is not an underground activist. He is a scientist.

In 2017, he returned to Russia to care for his sick mother. He found the beginning of the war and a country descending into madness.

He did not accept the “SMO.” He participated in demonstrations. He wrote anti-war posts. He spoke openly. And in 2023, he was arrested.

The worst accusation?

He was releasing “dangerous metallized balloons.” The investigation portrayed it as an entire operation by the Ukrainian secret services. He himself called it “fireworks” as a sign of protest.

He sought out those who thought like him. He remained human. He wrote from the pretrial detention center: the country is drowning in darkness, one cannot remain silent.

And now—a new level of absurdity.

After the verdict, when his fate had already been decided, new chapters are suddenly “revealed.”

This is not for the court—it is for television. To make the image fit: everything is turned into “sabotage” and a “threat to the state.”

The regime therefore reaches a conclusion, simple and convenient: every gesture can become a crime, every word a sentence, every dissenter an enemy.

But behind all this hysteria lies one fact that is unbearable for them: they did not break Veryanov.

And even from his cage, he speaks louder than their entire chorus of propagandists.

You do not need to know his name, biography, age, or who he was “in civilian life.” It is enough to know one thing: he chose freedom where death is forced upon everyone around him. And for that, they are vindictively locking him away behind bars.

Write, because a letter is no trivial matter. It is an indicator by which the regime suddenly sees the scale of what it fears: solidarity. Not anonymous, but living.

111020, Moscow, Lefortovsky Val, building 5, bldg. 2, SIZO-2, Andrey Yevgenyevich Veryanov, born in 1970. Zonatelecom offers an online email delivery service.

Translator’s note: On the Gulag.cz project website, there is a detailed guide on how to send paper or electronic mail to political prisoners in Russia. Only Russian is allowed. None of the email services for prisoners that do not require a Russian payment card include Veryanov in their database—many consider “terrorism” and “high treason” to be criminal, not political, charges. However, it is always possible to send a paper letter or postcard.

Translated from Russian by Pavel Veselský

Translation without additions or edits. The text does not express the views of the editorial staff.