In 2022, Shtovba was arrested along with others at the Mayakovsky Readings in Moscow. The next day, Artem Kamardin was arrested in relation to the case. The three poets of the Mayakovsky group were detained and charged with “public calls for activities directed against the security of the state, committed by an organized group.” Shtovba was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in December 2023.
