One fine day in late September, a medical student named Sergey was riding the bus to work in Kamensk-Uralsky, browsing the Internet on his phone. He came across some photos showing the insignia of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment and the pro-Kyiv paramilitary group known as the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK). “Who are those guys again?” Sergey asked himself. He satisfied his curiosity with a quick bit of reading and pocketed his phone.

Federal agents later arrested Sergey on charges of violating Russia’s newly enacted ban on seeking out “extremist” content. Both Azov and RDK are banned organizations in Russia. Sergey confessed to the online search and was released.

The medical student’s case came before a judge on October 10. The first of two hearings began on October 14, when defense attorneys asked that the court summon the Federal Security Service officers who took Sergey’s statement. On November 6, when the two agents failed to appear in court, the judge sent the case back to the police, ruling that officials had failed to show Sergey acted with malicious intent — a key element of the law enacted on September 1.

Further reading

• The crime of reading A new Russian law will ban not just posting ‘extremist’ content but simply searching for and accessing it

Russia regularly prosecutes citizens for illegal political speech. The most striking thing about Sergey’s arrest isn’t that it happened, but how quickly it was possible. The FSB had him in custody just a few hours after he read about Azov and RDK on his phone. According to the news outlet Agentstvo, the Internet browsing data likely came from Sergey’s mobile provider, T2.

Russia has only recently begun enforcing the ban on “extremist searches,” and while there are perennial questions about how selectively the police will act, Sergey’s case shows that Internet surveillance can respond almost instantly. Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer at the human rights group Department One, told Agentstvo that prosecutions under this new statute could become widespread if telecoms like T2 continue forwarding customers’ browsing data to law enforcement.

At a cabinet meeting this summer, Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev assured President Putin that the law would not be used against Russians who accidentally stumble across prohibited “extremist” materials. Where a person’s intent is more opaque, however, it seems a visit from the FSB might be in order.

Update: Mobile operator T2 denies surrendering a customer’s Internet search history. According to defense attorney Sergey Barsukov, the evidence against his client came from an unnamed telecom operator, which he speculated was T2. Agentstvo reported that T2 is the defendant’s sole mobile provider.

Cover photo: Sergey Bobylev / TASS