On 19 March 2023, police raided Open Space, a co-working area regularly used by independent journalists and activists in Moscow, detaining at least three journalists: SOTA Vision correspondent Lilian Rubtsova, RusNews journalist Aleksandr Filippov and photographer Aleksandra Astakhova. They were release soon after. The media workers were reporting from a presentation of a comic book authored by Sasha Skochilenko, a Russian artist currently imprisoned on charges of “discrediting” the Russian army. Police forcefully ended the presentation of the comic book in the course of the raid. Several participants of the event were severely beaten, including one man who refused to show his documents and give his name to police. Security forces also reportedly attempted to force some of the participants to sing Russian patriotic songs.
According to eyewitnesses who spoke to MediaZona, an independent Russian online media, police asked some of those present if they had any relationship with Feminist Anti-War Resistance, a Russian LGBT-supportive movement opposing the war in Ukraine. The police raid was reportedly initiated after a complaint filed by a Russian anti-LGBT activist, on the grounds that the event violated Russian laws on “LGBT propaganda”.