A criminal case has been initiated against a Navalny supporter in Chuvashia

Volunteer of the Cheboksary headquarters of Navalny Alexei Mironov is accused of public calls for extremist activity and inciting hatred.

In June 2017, a criminal case under part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremist activities on the Internet) and Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting national hatred).

The decision to initiate a criminal case states that " On July 7, 2016, Mironov publicly posted on his VKontakte page a graphic image of a certificate of a citizen subject to conscription for military service, with the text in English:" God bless the USA Keep calm and f *** Russia" and an inscription over the image: "I officially call for .......... power "". From the point of view of the investigation, " the specified graphic image with an inscription containing signs of extremism was deliberately, publicly placed by Mironov in order to induce an unlimited circle of people to commit actions aimed at a violent change of power, and addressed to an indefinitely wide circle of people, which until June 21, 2016 year was the object of study and viewing by at least 2 users of the Internet public information and telecommunication network ". We believe that the prosecution of Mironov under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code is unreasonable. Such a general statement in the mouth of an ordinary citizen does not pose any public danger, especially since the audience that got acquainted with the image was minimal.

According to Art. 282 Mironov is charged with a statement asserting the need to exterminate Muslims. We cannot call this accusation unfounded.

According to Idel.Realii, in August 2016 Alexei Mironov was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (propaganda or public demonstration of Nazi paraphernalia or symbols) for reposting an image with a swastika, designed to draw a parallel between Putin and Hitler. The Novocheboksary City Court fined him 1,500 rubles. Recall that persecution for publications containing Nazi symbols, but not aimed at promoting Nazism, we consider illegal.

According to Mironov, after that he deleted all entries from his VKontakte wall, that is, the screenshots shown to him by the investigation were taken before August 2016. Obviously, the FSB decided not to stop at the administrative persecution of the activist and move on to criminal prosecution.

Sources

• Love Yegorova. Navalny's supporter in Chuvashia faces a real prison sentence for posts on VKontakte // Idel.Reality. 2017. July 5.
• Eduard Burmistrov. Volunteer of Navalny's headquarters was accused of extremism due to deleted entries in VKontakte // Open Russia. 2017. July 28.