"Sedimandfully sowed panic." Who is pursued for posts about coronavirus

On April 1, President Vladimir Putin signed the law on criminal liability for the publication of fake data. Violators face 300 thousand fine to five years in prison. During this time, the North-West of Russia became the leader in the number of cases of fakes. The police are called activists, journalists and ordinary users of social networks. The editors of the North. Reali talks about several stories of such persecution.

The first criminal case of fakes was opened in St. Petersburg. Investigators did not like the post of 39-year-old activist Anna Shushpanova VKontakte. It talked about how the doctors let go of the patient's coronavirus, allegedly. Shushpanova searched, now she is in the status of a witness.

A few days later, the fake was found in Vologda, where 19-year-old Yana Smirnova in a telegram channel posted an audio recording about two hundred allegedly ill in Cherepovets and twelve in Vologda. The police did not confirm these data - and the court fined Jan for 15 thousand rubles.

On April 7, the Investigative Committee on the Leningrad Region announced the initiation of a criminal case due to information about armored vehicles with weapons on the Volkhov border, the author of the post connected the appearance of military vehicles with a quarantine in coronavirus. Who exactly investigators are going to attract in this case is still unknown.

The Human Rights Group "Agora" reported that four cases of administrative offenses for fakes were already tracked in the northwest (in total in Russia it is known about 47 such cases) and five criminal cases (in total in Russia-18).

"Connected generals"

“Today, it got out of Murino, it was wounded in his leg with dashes and creepy,” 32-year-old Vitaly Pisarev wrote in April 2 in the Devyatkino Live group and added that he saw people in uniform. So, as a joke, he answered a woman who was interested in whether he could transport things from Murino to Vsevolozhsk. The humor community was appreciated and hastened with "details": they talked about drones with thermal imagers, tanks, snipers, stretching and patrols.

The police told me that they connected some generals, calculated the point where I wrote a comment

Vitaly laughed with everyone, and a couple of days later he received an invitation to the police, where they qualified a joke about the military and the wound was qualified as a fake. Pisareva did not even save the pseudonym, under which he was registered in VKontakte. The telephone turned out to be an instrument of the offense - his law enforcement officers examined and just in case photographed.

- There they raised such a kipish! The police told me that they connected some generals, calculated the point where I wrote a comment. They explained that there is a special group that monitors comments because of the situation with this virus. My comment seemed "suspicious", or something. He was sent to the prosecutor’s office, and from there to the police department, ”Vitaly Pisarev told the correspondent of the North. Realia.

He says that he was never an activist or oppositionist and did not fall into the field of view of the police. With the patrol until April 2020, it crossed only a couple of times when he walked with beer along the street. In the department, he tried to explain that his whole comment was a joke and no one took this short text seriously. But the police considered that Pisarev distributed false information, and initiated an administrative case under Part 9 of Art. 13.15 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. "He published inaccurate information describing the situation in Murino, which was formed in connection with the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus infection, and thereby created the opinion of users about the threat of massive violation of public order and public security," the protocol says.

- The operatives laughed. They all understand that it was a joke. But there is an order from above. There, apparently, they do not know how to humor ... - Vitaly believes.

15 thousand for a joke! I love this country more and more

His case was investigated in a week, but the justice of the judicial section No. 82 returned the materials to the police on April 10, noting that the protocol was incorrectly drawn up, and the materials were incomplete and incorrectly executed. After corrections on April 24, the justice of the plot of plot No. 82 in St. Petersburg fined Vitaly for 15 thousand rubles.

- The judge did not really say anything, asked if anyone was dependent. I replied that four cats. They said that in connection with the situation in the country, I randomly sowed panic ... among whom I sowed? Where did you sow? 15 thousand for a joke! I love this country more and more, ”Pisarev commented on his fine.

"Where are you Delhi Ivl Devices?"

Nikolai Kuzmin did not joke at all when on March 16 he wrote in VKontakte about two Ivl devices in the infectious department of the Pskov city hospital. He explained that he learned about one broken and one working device from doctors. “But it is precisely the infectious hospital that severe patients in coronavirus will be taken. To everything else, even on ordinary days there is a shortage of infectious disease specialists there,” Kuzmin said and suggested that during the surge of the disease, patients would depend on the possibilities of their own body.

Kuzmin - Pskov oppositionist. On September 9, 2018, at the All -Russian campaign against pension reform, he chained himself handcuffs to the road post. Nikolai explains that he reacted to Koronavirus because he understood how much the pandemic became a big problem for all countries, and wanted to draw attention to the lack of doctors and medical equipment in the regions.

- When with a difference of three weeks we hear from Governor Vedernikov and his deputy data on IVL devices with negative dynamics by 25%, I want to ask: “Where are you dividing the devices? How to perceive your data, if you manipulate it as you want, and last week they completely turned off the sound in a direct broadcast at the time of the conversation about the Ivl devices in our region?” - Kuzmin is indignant.

In his case, six witnesses from different areas of the Pskov region. All of them give very similar indications about how the entry from the user under the nickname Nikolai Kuzmin appeared. "I understand, from the words" Nikolai Kuzmin "that if the coronavirus is infected, it makes no sense to contact doctors, but if I do not see a doctor, they will not be able to help me and I can also die in stores and public transport. That is, Nikolai Kuzmin offers not to be treated to a hospital where they can help in time with a threat to life and health. I am worried about this, but I think that the information posted is unreliable (the author’s spelling and punctuation are saved. - SR) , ”one of them reports.

The rest of the witnesses also report how Kuzmin’s entry scared them in detail, and assure that those who read her will stop contacting doctors.

Undermines the reputation of the medical institution during the pandemic

The administrative case for the distribution of false information under the guise of reliable (part 9 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) on Kuzmin was excited on March 19. And the next day, the then head physician Alexei Vasiliev came to the police (on April 6, he went to a long sick leave, now the chief physician is performed by the official of the Health Committee) and demanded to check the post of activist. He explained that patients will not be left without help, because with life-threatening conditions they will be put in the department of resuscitation-anesthesiology, which, as well as infectious, is part of the structure of the city hospital (according to the official website of the hospital, the departments have different addresses).

The head physician Vasiliev also wrote to investigators that because of the post of Kuzmin, Pskovichi could inadequately evaluate the situation in the city hospital, refuse to go there and create a threat of mass infection. "Information, widespread by Kuzmin, brings a negative assessment of the activities of a city hospital and undermines the reputation of the medical institution during the pandemic," he summed up in the statement.

The fact of probable reality

The case file also has a head physician’s response to the official police request about the number of IVL devices in the infectious department of the city hospital as of March 16. Vasiliev reports that at this time in the infectious department of the city hospital, where patients with coronavirus were originally received, there was one Ivl apparatus.

To understand what exactly wanted to say to Kuzmin, the police ordered a study. It was conducted by expert Maria Sukhomlinova with a higher education in the specialty "Linguist-Transporter".

"There are statements in the presented record in which the fact of a probable reality is received, related to the lack of IVL apparatus at the Pskov city infectious hospital," the expert wrote. She clarified that Kuzmin "expresses her opinion that if a surge in the disease comes, then the sick will not be provided with medical care."

This is a politically motivated business, an attempt to put pressure

There is no research part in the conclusion of the expert Sukhomlinova. She only clarifies that "solved issues in accordance with the standard methodology of forensic examination."

Investigators plan to investigate the post of Kuzmin until May 17. At the first interrogation, he took advantage of the 51st article of the Constitution.

“This is a politically motivated business, an attempt to put pressure, maybe even block my page,” Kuzmin believes.

He is not the only person involved in the "fake" cases in the Pskov region. On April 24, at a meeting of the operational headquarters of the region, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Pskov region, Alexei Ovsyanikov, said that during the monitoring ten violations were identified - the spread of knowingly false information (part 9. Article 13.15 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation). He announced that the police are conducting an administrative investigation.

It is known that in addition to Kuzmin, the police plans to check the journalist Lyudmila Savitskaya and blogger Alexei Menov. Both got the summons. In a conversation with Savitskaya, the senior police lieutenant Denis Kondratyev explained that it was not Nikolai Kuzmin, but directly to the journalist. According to Kondratyev, the reason for calling the police was an article by Savitskaya to prepare the region for coronavirus pandemic, which reached the MBH Media. The policeman noted that we are talking about abuse of freedom of the mass media - Article 13.15 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.

Blogger Alexei Malov draws attention to the fact that the numbers of the affairs of Savitskaya, himself and Kuzmin differ. Kondratyev also told him that he was not in the Kuzmin case, and thanked for the consent to communicate "in such an important and serious matter."

"I checked, doubled and removed from the site"

The head of the legal department of the Law Department of Russia Sitting Alexei Fedyarov calls pressure and inability to talk with civil society. He says that on April 9, a little news appeared on the fund’s website that the illicides may not have enough thermometers in the Novgorod colony. The note, according to Fedyarov, managed to hang out for several hours, and then Olga Romanova, the head of Rus Sitting, deleted it.

It looked so senile, so stupid that we did not even know where to turn

- Olga Evgenievna looked at her, checked, double -checked and removed from the site. Because this news had nothing to do with the topic of monitoring of the coronavirus in the colonies. This note is not about coronavirus. There is not a word about him or about any other virus. The decision to remove is a technical moment. I do not think that someone managed to see her, because she sagged there for a very short time, ”says Alexey Fedyarov.

The fact that a short -lived publication turned into a criminal case, the fund was learned from the media and first of all decided to immediately file a lawsuit to protect honor and dignity for the RT and REN TV channels. They wrote that the Investigative Committee allegedly opened a criminal case against the "Rus' sitting" for the publication of fake information about the coronavirus.

- But the criminal case has not been instituted against the "Rus' sitting". The fund never posted any fake news. It looked so senile, so stupid that we did not even know where to turn, ”Fedyarov admits.

A few days later, a request and a summons from the Investigative Committee for the Novgorod Region with the question of who posted the publication (while the news did not quote), and Olga Romanova’s invitation to the interrogation came to the “Rus.” The investigator replied that there was no news about coronavirus disease, but there was a note that people were sick and they had one thermometer. And they emphasized that in the site section there is a disclaim that all information requires verification. Also in the “Rus of the Sitting” they said that Olga Romanova is currently constantly living outside of Russia, and talked about the procedure for calling a witness in the framework of international cooperation.

- It would be right if the Investigative Committee began to check this news and found out if there are those sick there, whether there are coronavirus, whether people are provided with tests. And they spend time, resources, money to prosecute the fund. In order for the placement of information to be criminally punishable, it is necessary that it be obviously false for us, the crime must have socially dangerous consequences, some panic arise. But this is not! Who managed to read this message? But even if they read: who will be surprised that there are patients in the colony? I can clearly say that in every colony of Russia there are sick people, ”says lawyer Fedyarov.

A crowd of employees of the centers "E" lost the main working tool. Fakes for them now is a way to return the lost influence

He explains that neither the fund nor Olga Romanova has access to the case file, because the criminal case was not instituted in relation to, but in fact. And I am sure that the investigation will certainly find the victims from the recording.

- This is the standard methodology for the work of the Center "E" and the investigation - studied and tested on a bunch of cases. I am sure that it will also be here: ten witnesses will be collected, who allegedly read the news and were going to rush from the country. But only all of them will never be able to prove that it was news about coronavirus, ”Fedyarov promises.

Legal analyst of Agora Damir Gainutdinov notes that for the past couple of years the regional authorities and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been actively purchasing systems for monitoring sites and social networks. It suggests that they are actively used, among other things, for the search for so -called fakes.

- It is very important that the dispositions of articles 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and articles 207.1, 207.2 of the Criminal Code are similar to the degree of mixing, which makes it possible to choose which article to arrange by a person. Such things, of course, are beneficial to the police. After the actual liquidation of the 282nd article in December 2018, a crowd of employees of centers “E” lost the main working tool. Fakes for them are now a way to return the lost influence, ”says Gainutdinov.