Activist Igor Rogov. Photo: Social media

A court in Poland has remanded a Russian activist in custody for three months on charges of planning to use explosives to cause harm to others, the State Prosecutor’s Office told Novaya Europe on Thursday.

Igor Rogov, a former member of pro-democracy organisation Open Russia, was detained on 29 July in the Polish city of Katowice and was charged with planning to directly endanger the lives and well-being of a large number of people, as well as planning to cause significant property damage through acts of subversion. Further details about the case have not been disclosed.

Russian independent media outlet SOTA previously speculated that Rogov could face espionage charges, and said that Polish law enforcement had conducted a search of Rogov’s residence.

Rogov, who relocated to Poland to take up a scholarship for studying in Katowice and was later granted refugee status in the country, previously worked as the deputy coordinator of late Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s headquarters in the city of Saransk, the regional capital of Mordovia in western Russia, where he also worked as a coordinator for Open Russia.

In August 2020, Rogov and another Open Russia employee, Artyom Vazhenkov, travelled to Minsk to observe the growing anti-government protests in Belarus. However, the pair were arrested in Minsk and were accused by the Belarusian media of taking part in “mass riots” and being provocateurs.