Vyborg prosecutor's office is against a YouTube video with Putin

March 21, 2012 the editorial office of the newspaper "Vyborg Vedomosti" received an official response from the Vyborg City Prosecutor's Office on the results of the check carried out in connection with the posting on the blog of journalist Andrey Kolomoisky on the Vyborg Vedomosti website links on a parody video on YouTube. The prosecutor's office saw signs of Part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for the implementation of extremist activities using the media) and art. 1 st. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (inciting hatred or enmity) and sent materials to Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Leningrad Region to resolve the issue of initiation of a criminal case. Link to this video parodying V. Putin's appeal to voters, which has about 600 thousand views and 300 subscribers, A. Kolomoisky posted on his blog on the Vyborg Vedomosti website back on December 2, 2011. On December 3, 2011, prosecutors demanded "remove the video from the site."

On February 22, 2012, the journalist was invited to the prosecutor's office "for giving explanations". A. Kolomoisky avoided the visit, but the editors website Lenizdat.ru sent an official request to the Vyborg prosecutor's office with request to be informed about the results of the audit.

came to the editor On March 21, the answer : according to according to the prosecutor's office, in the video " used statements calling for the destruction of the Russian people and promoting appeals of an extremist nature , "and A. Kolomoisky" made acts falling under the signs of the composition of the crimes provided for in Part 2 Art. 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for the implementation of extremist activities with using the media), as well as Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (inciting hatred or enmity, as well as the humiliation of human dignity) .

On May 24, 2012 the site Lenizdat.ru announced further development of events. On March 14, 2012, the Investigative Committee sent the case materials to the prosecutor's office Leningrad Region to resolve the issue of canceling the decision of the prosecutor Vyborg and additional verification. On March 30, the decision was canceled as rendered" without carrying out all the necessary verification events, including without attaching the opinion of a specialist on the presence in posted video showing signs of public calls for implementation extremist (so!) activity " and returned to the prosecutor's office of Vyborg. To date, there is no additional information

Everyone, having watched the video, can be sure that this video is satirical, therefore the text attributed to V. Putin in it does not, in fact, contain any statements " calling for the destruction of the Russian people and propagandizing appeals of an extremist nature " .

In this case, there is another important conflict. A. Kolomoisky claims that he is neither the author nor the publisher of the video, he did not upload the video to the Internet, but only saw it on the blog of Alexei Navalny and gave a link to it.

Undoubtedly, a reference to some public statement is not identical with the statement itself. But embedded (in a blog, website, Facebook account, etc.) video is not very different for the consumer from the video uploaded by the author. Neither the law nor the practice give grounds to unequivocally decide whether an embedded video is a republishment or a link.

Finally, since it was not A. Kolomoisky who uploaded the video to the Internet, other suspects may also appear in the case, if it is initiated.

Sources

• Kustikova Alisa, Fazletdinova Daria. Vyborg journalist faces two articles of the Criminal Code for a video with Putin // Lenizdat.ru. 2012. March 22.