During the municipal elections campaign in 2019, Chupov and his movement supported a candidate for the Moscow city council, Ivan Zhdanov, the director and lawyer of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.
He fled Russia at the time after police detained and questioned him at least twice.
Russian opposition activist Yevgeny Chupov, who fled Russia in 2019 fearing possible prosecution for his political activities, has received refugee status in Bulgaria.
Chupov told RFE/RL on January 5 that Bulgaria’s State Agency on Refugees had ruled he, his wife, and four children could remain in Bulgaria.
According to Chupov, his initial application filed in August 2019 was rejected but the agency changed the ruling before his appeal was considered by the Sofia city administrative court.
Chupov and his family came to Bulgaria in 2019, saying that they feared persecution in Russia for Chupov’s political activities.
The 41-year-old English teacher and blogger created a civil movement in Moscow in 2015 promoting local self-governance.
