Victor Vorobyov

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Victorovich and the family name is Vorobyov.

Victor Vorobyov
Виктор Воробьёв
Leader of the Communist Party faction in the State Council of the Komi Republic
In office 4 November 2021 – 20 February 2024
Preceded by	Oleg Mikhailov
Succeeded by	Yekaterina Dyachkova (acting)
Member of the State Council of the Komi Republic
In office 27 October 2021 – 10 November 2024
Preceded by	Oleg Mikhailov
Succeeded by	Nikolai Udoratin
Personal details
Born	(1989-06-19) 19 June 1989 Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, USSR
Party	Yabloko (2012–2013) Libertarian Party of Russia
Education	Saint Petersburg State University Nevsky Institute of Language and Culture Higher School of Economics Kutafin Moscow State Law University
Occupation	Lawyer, politician, human rights defender

Victor Vorobyov (Russian: Ви́ктор Ви́кторович Воробьёв; born 19 June 1989) is a Russian lawyer, human rights defender and opposition politician. He served as a member of the State Council of the Komi Republic from 2021 to 2024 and led its Communist Party faction. In 2022 he became the first sitting Russian legislator to be placed on the government's "foreign agents" register, a designation he has challenged in court.

Early life and education

Vorobyov was born on 19 June 1989 in Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic, into a family of university lecturers from the philology faculty of Syktyvkar State University. After school he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he studied at Saint Petersburg State University and later at the Higher School of Economics (HSE). As a student he led student councils at several levels and campaigned on student rights, heading the Saint Petersburg branch of the Russian Student Union from 2011 to 2013.

Legal and human rights work

Vorobyov qualified as a lawyer and worked on election-law cases and freedom-of-assembly defence, cooperating with the rights groups OVD-Info and Apologia of Protest. He repeatedly secured the reversal of fines imposed on activists for peaceful pickets and rallies, including for participants in protests against the 2020 constitutional amendments and in support of Alexei Navalny.

Acting as a representative before the European Court of Human Rights, Vorobyov won judgments finding Russia in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. In March and May 2023 the Court held that Article 11 (freedom of assembly) had been breached in cases he had brought on behalf of Russian activists.

Political career

Vorobyov joined the liberal party Yabloko in 2012 but left in January 2013 in protest at the expulsion of the faction around Maxim Reznik, whom he then assisted as an aide in the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg. He later led legal teams for opposition campaigns in Moscow and Saint Petersburg municipal elections and sat on the electoral commissions of Saint Petersburg (2019–2021) and the Komi Republic (2020–2021). He is a member of the unregistered Libertarian Party of Russia.

State Council of the Komi Republic

In October 2021 Vorobyov took over the State Council seat vacated by Oleg Mikhailov, who had been elected to the State Duma, and joined the Communist Party faction, becoming its leader in November 2021. Though not a Communist Party member himself, he sat in the legislature on its behalf.

In the State Council he opposed the introduction of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination QR codes, argued against federal legislation curtailing local self-government, and clashed repeatedly with the regional authorities and with Komi's head Vladimir Uyba. His microphone was cut off on several occasions after critical speeches.

Opposition to the war and "foreign agent" status

On 28 February 2022 Vorobyov publicly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was detained at an anti-war protest in Saint Petersburg on 6 March 2022 and sentenced to 15 days' administrative detention, and was later fined 100,000 rubles over the same statement.

On 1 April 2022 the Russian Ministry of Justice added Vorobyov to its register of "individuals acting as foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent", making him the first sitting Russian deputy to be so designated. Media reported that the listing followed, among other things, a £25 refund he had received for a returned train ticket in London. Vorobyov has contested the designation in court.

Following his anti-war stance, the State Council's majority stripped him of speaking rights, removed him from its presidium, and ended his status as a full-time salaried deputy.

Loss of mandate

In September 2024 the Federal Security Service (FSB) searched Vorobyov's flat in connection with a criminal case against his brother; Vorobyov was questioned as a witness and released without charge. On 24 October 2024 the State Council resolved to terminate his mandate unless he was removed from the "foreign agents" register by 10 November 2024. He was not removed, and his mandate ended on 11 November 2024. The Communist Party faction walked out of the chamber in protest, and electoral lawyers criticised the decision as premature.