Reserve Armed Forces Colonel Mikhail Shendakov was arrested

A case was initiated against the activist under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code and 280 of the Criminal Code.

On October 19, 2020, it became known that the Krasnogorsk City Court of the Moscow Region arrested the activist, military colonel in the reserve Mikhail Shendakov, changing his measure of restraint from undertaking not to leave. A case was initiated against him under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred towards a social group) and Part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremism on the Internet). It was submitted to the court in June 2020.

The reason for initiating the case was Shendakov’s video “Surkov promised war to Donbass”, in which law enforcement officers found incitement of hatred towards “law enforcement officers, namely the FSB”. The case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code can only be initiated if an offense under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. On October 9, 2019, the Krasnogorsk City Court of the Moscow Region held Shendakov liable under this article - according to media reports, the court fined him 10 thousand rubles for his speech “Chechens and Ingush, kill each other” (paragraph 4995 of the Federal List of Extremist Materials ) . According to the website of the Krasnogorsk City Court, Shendakov was again brought to justice under Art. 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on March 2, 2020.

The court changed the preventive measure due to Shendakov's repeated absences from court sessions. It is known that twice he did not come to court because of serving administrative arrests.

We got acquainted with the stream with the participation of the activist, published on December 22, 2019, which, apparently, became the reason for his persecution. In it, he calls for violence against law enforcement agencies “throughout the country” and supports the shooter who opened fire near the FSB building on December 19, 2019.

However, we recall that we are in favor of excluding the vague concept of “social group” from the anti-extremist legislation.

Shendakov repeatedly participated in the Moscow "Russian Marches" (in 2017 , 2018 and 2019 ).

Sources

• Case card No. 1-378/2020 // Krasnogorsk city court of the Moscow region. 2020. October 19.
• In the Moscow region, a colonel was arrested on charges of inciting hatred against FSB officers because of a YouTube video // Mediazone. 2020. October 19.
• Case card No. 5-627/2019 // Krasnogorsk city court of the Moscow region. 2019. October 9.
• Case card No. 5-14/2020 (5-887/2019;) // Krasnogorsk city court of the Moscow region. 2020. March 2.
• Shendakov case: Investigative Committee demanded to detain 43,000 YouTube viewers // Grani.ru. January 15, 2021