"Why do I need a pension if I am young for repost?"

In the center of Barnaul, a mass picket was held against criminal prosecution for publishing pictures on the Internet

The audience went in support of VKontakte users, who are judged under Part 1 of Art. 148 ("Insulting the feelings of believers") and part 1 of Art. 282 ("excitement of hatred or enmity"). In the Altai Territory today there are at least four: Maria Motuznaya, Daniil Markin, Andrey Shasherin and Anton Angel. All of them threaten up to six years in prison.

The attention of Internet users to Barnaul events has brought information about the impending rally to the federal level. Rap Oximiron (Miron Fedorov) called on to support him. On his Twitter, Fedorov noted that criminal cases for pictures on the Internet are holding the population in fear, leading to real tragedies for close convicts and are a tool for repression.

They also spoke about the situation in the Kremlin, urging them to protect common sense when considering cases of publications on social networks. In particular, the presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We remember that there are still cases that, as they say, behind the facet of reasonable.”

At 19 o’clock on August 14, more than 150 people gathered in the Square of Freedom in the city center.

Alexander Lambert , public activist, one of the organizers of the action:

- There are a lot of youth and journalists in the square. People stand with signs like “Why do I need a pension if I am young for repost?”. Since this is not a rally, but a mass picket, we could not set the scene, and those who wish are simply in the center of the crowd. We decided to give the floor to everyone who wants.

Among the speakers, for example, Anton Angel (one of the defendants in a criminal case for the “initiation of hatred”) and a friend of Masha’s motorcycle - they all urge to stop criminal prosecutions for pictures on the Internet. The police behave calmly, just observes. We conducted a picket because we understand that now we have survived before the apogee, when we only hear how criminal cases for extremism on the Internet are initiated one after another. They think that they know better than us how to behave, what to save and repose.

Daniil Markin , one of the accused:

- For Barnaul, these are a lot of people, I did not expect to see so much here. We even do not come to rallies of large opposition organizations. Strangers to me came here, they are in my support as well. They talk about how politics has changed, how the constitution is not respected. Even the local priest spoke, said that the pictures that are being judged by are not offensive to real believers.

Maria Motuznaya , one of the accused:

- Yesterday, of course, the very shock was when I saw the post of Oximiron. I think this attention will help us all. Here I saw a lot of people, generally unfamiliar to me, some passers-by just stopped and joined the discussion. I did not expect some people here, for example, I did not see my classmate for two years, and he stands here and performs in my support. I also performed. One guy read out articles from the Constitution, said that everything was broken. There was such a strange moment, I noticed people who stood next to the police and just took a picture of everyone. Activists from Open Russia said that these were “echniki” ( employees of the Center for Combating Extremism. - Ed. ).