In Tula, a case was initiated under Art. 280.3 CC

Andrey Pavlov from Tula became a defendant in the case of repeated discrediting of the Armed Forces.

On August 1, 2022, it became known that a criminal case was opened in Tula under Art. 280.3 of the Criminal Code (public actions aimed at discrediting the armed forces , committed after bringing to administrative responsibility). The suspect was 38-year-old local resident Andrey Pavlov, who was ordered not to leave.

On March 30, the Privokzalny District Court of Tula fined Pavlov 40,000 rubles under Part 1 of Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for attaching to the jacket the flag of Ukraine, a tag with an anti-war statement, as well as a red and black flag, designated in the court order as the "Cossack protest banner." In addition, the court fined him one and a half thousand rubles under Part 1 of Art. 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (public display of Nazi symbols) for a certain post on a social network. Pavlov appealed against the ruling issued under Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, however, on April 29, the Tula Regional Court rejected his complaint, and the decision entered into force.

A criminal case was initiated in connection with the publications that Pavlov made on the Internet.

From our point of view, the introduction into the legislation of a ban on discrediting the actions of the Russian armed forces and government agencies abroad was an unreasonable restriction on the right to freedom of expression, designed to suppress criticism of the political course of the authorities. Therefore, we consider prosecution under the relevant articles for statements that do not contain direct calls for violence to be unlawful.

Sources

• In March, after the start of the special operation in Ukraine... // Tula. ExtremeZm. Telegram. 2022. August 2.
• Case card No. 5-843/2022 // Site of the Railway Station District Court of Tula. 2022. July 12.
• Case card No. 7-161/2022 // Website of the Tula Regional Court. May 27, 2022
• In Tula, opened a criminal case on the discrediting of the army // OVD-News. 2022. August 2. *