Why not?

The Kuibyshev Federal District Court of St. Petersburg has begun consideration of an unprecedented civil case - for the first time in legal practice, a claim for the protection of business reputation is being filed by a military unit. Military unit 37/27 believes that its reputation was defamed by the media and the public organization "Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg" and demands compensation of 2 million rubles.

About a year ago, Komsomolskaya Pravda, with reference to Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg, reported that in military unit 37/27 of the North-Western Regional Command of the Internal Troops, conscripts are forced into prostitution. The source of the information was a serviceman of the internal troops, who, according to the military, deserted, and according to human rights activists, fled from the tyranny of his senior soldiers. The young man (his last name was deliberately not given in court) told human rights activists that old-time soldiers demand money from young soldiers. Those who do not have money are allegedly forced into male prostitution, and those who do not agree are tortured. Then the question of initiating a criminal case arose, and the 53rd Military Prosecutor's Office initiated a check of the data published in the media. But the facts were not confirmed: as it turned out, the young man, who called himself a first-year student, was in fact an old-timer and at the time of the events he described was waiting for demobilization, but did not wait and ran away. And he turned to the Soldiers' Mothers, according to investigators, so that he would not be prosecuted for desertion. The initiation of a criminal case on the facts of hazing was refused. After this, the judge announced a break until June 2.

As Sergei Golubok, a lawyer for the organization “Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg,” said, he does not understand the essence of the claim at all. In his opinion, the military cannot have any business reputation; service is not a business. On the other hand, if a court in Russia can recognize police officers as a “social group,” then why shouldn’t the military protect their “business reputation”? In the end, the articles discrediting the honor of the military unit were talking specifically about “business.”

The military unit mentioned in the publications decided to defend its reputation in court. During the first court hearing, which was held behind closed doors, testimony from witnesses on the defendant's side was heard. The source of information himself was not present at the trial - after the verdict he is in prison. But during the process, the materials of the inspection of the military prosecutor’s office and the criminal case on the fact of desertion, as well as a letter from the soldier and a video recording of his statement, were read out.