Valery Bolshakov from Sevastopol received a suspended sentence

Having reconsidered the case of the left-wing activist Bolshakov, the Sevastopol court again sentenced him to a suspended sentence under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code.

On October 26, 2020, the Nakhimovsky District Court of Sevastopol sentenced Valery Bolshakov, ex-head of the Union of Workers of Sevastopol and secretary of the Sevastopol branch of the Russian United Labor Front (ROT FRONT) party, to two and a half years of suspended liberty with a two-year probationary period and a two-year ban on borrowing senior positions in 1 and 2 Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremist activity, including those committed on the Internet).

Bolshakov was found guilty under Part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code for two episodes. In particular, he was charged with a post with offensive characteristics of the Terek Cossacks, in which, in particular, he proposed " to drive them to Novorossia ." Initially, for this episode, Bolshakov was charged under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred), it was removed due to the partial decriminalization of this article. Then the same statements were qualified under Part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (public calls for extremist activity on the Internet). Bolshakov's words can indeed be understood as a call for the deportation of the Cossacks from Crimea, but the court should have taken into account that the likelihood of such a call being implemented in the current political context is extremely small.

According to the same part 2 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code, Bolshakov was accused of publishing posts on VKontakte accusing the Russian authorities of " genocide against the people of Russia ", quoting from Lenin and calling for " establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat by force ".

Accusation under Part 1 of Art. 280 of the Criminal Code on public calls for offline extremist activity was brought in connection with a speech made by Bolshakov during a one-man picket, to which he came out with a poster "Down with Putin's police power." The court considered that both the poster itself and Bolshakov's speech, in which he wished the imminent death of " Putin's dictatorship " and the " police state " and the further establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, contained calls for "the elimination of the officially acting government ."

We tend to believe that such calls for revolution and the coming to power of the proletariat, often heard from the lips of left-wing activists, are not capable of prompting real violent anti-government actions and should be taken more as a figure of speech designed to convey dissatisfaction with the current authorities.

Bolshakov was sentenced on the same charges to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment with a ban on holding public office back in June 2019, but already in August the Sevastopol City Court overturned the sentence and returned the case to the prosecutor. It went back to court in February 2020.

Sources

• A court in Sevastopol sentenced left-wing activist Valery Bolshakov to two and a half years of probation for slogan "Down with Putin's police power" and calling for the dictatorship of the proletariat // Grati. 2020. October 26.
• The prosecution asked for a leftist activist from Sevastopol Valery Bolshakov 4 years probation. He was tried for incitement to extremism because of the slogan "Down with Putin's police power" // Grati. 2020. October 23.
• Case card No. 1-82/2020 // Website of the Nakhimovsky District Court of Sevastopol. 2020. October 26.