“Citizen of the USSR” was fined for calling to participate in the elections of deputies

Sergei Larionov was fined under Art. 20.3.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for 70 thousand rubles.

On June 14, 2022, the Vereshchaginsky District Court of the Perm Territory fined Sergey Larionov 70 thousand rubles under Part 2 of Art. 20.3.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public calls for separatism on the Internet). On July 27, the Perm Regional Court upheld this decision.

Larionov published the 77th issue of the newspaper Vedomosti of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR / RSFSR on VKontakte. This publication is published by a group of “citizens of the USSR”, which was founded by a resident of Vereshchagin, Svetlana Zorya (died in January 2022). The newspaper contained an appeal signed by "Secretary General of the Central Committee of the CPSU" Vladimir Koryakin. According to an employee of the forensic center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Perm Territory, this appeal contains “statements that encourage the addressee (citizens of the Russian Federation, those who, by conviction, consider themselves communists and are ready to restore the USSR) to directly participate in the national elections of people's deputies of the USSR with the purpose of resuming on the territory of Russia the Soviet Union and the revival of the USSR)”.

We believe that sanctions are appropriate only if calls for violent separatism are published. Zori-Koryakin's "Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR" has not been seen to be prone to violence, and it is not clear what social danger the call to participate in the elections of "Soviet deputies" carries in itself.

Sources

• Case card on an administrative offense No. 5-111/2022 // Vereshchaginsky District Court of the Perm Territory. 2022. October 31.
• Case card on an administrative offense No. 71-651/2022 // Perm Regional Court. November 5, 2022