Lawyer Dmitry Talantov was finally charged under the article on “fake news” about the Russian army

The prosecutor's office of the South-Western District of Moscow approved the indictment of lawyer from Udmurtia Dmitry Talantov - he is charged with articles of public dissemination of knowingly false information about the actions of the armed forces of the Russian Federation (clause “d”, part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and inciting hatred or enmity (clause "b" part 2 of article 282 of the Criminal Code). According to the security forces, when committing these crimes, the lawyer took advantage of his official position. Lawyer Pavel Biyanov reported this to OVD-Info.

The reason for initiating a criminal case was Talantov’s publications on Facebook. In one of them, he called the actions of the Russian army in Mariupol, Irpen and Bucha “extreme Nazi practices.” Initially, the lawyer was charged with only one case of disseminating “fake news” through his page on social networks; later he was charged with three counts of “fake news” and two counts of inciting hatred.

“Dmitry Nikolaevich does not admit his guilt and does not believe that his posts on social networks contain anything criminal,” Biyanov said. The defender added that the trial will take place in one of the district courts near Izhevsk due to the principle of territoriality. According to the investigation, Talantov disseminated “untrue” information while at his dacha in the suburbs of Izhevsk.

Talantov was detained in June. Then he was transferred to Moscow, since the case was being handled by the Investigative Committee for the South-Western District of the capital, and was sent to a pre-trial detention center. Defense lawyers said that in pre-trial detention center-4 the man was not given a bed and was offered to sleep on the floor. Later, Talantov was eventually provided with a bed. Initially, he was suspected only under the article about “fakes.” The fact that an article about inciting hatred had been added to the case became known in September.

• Dmitry Talantov is the president of the Chamber of Lawyers of the Udmurt Republic, chairman of the board of Initiative-18, and also the lawyer of journalist Ivan Safronov, sentenced to 22 years in a case of high treason.
• Since February 24—the first day of the “special operation” in Ukraine—residents of Russian cities have been going out to anti-war rallies every day and talking about the tragedy online. Anti-war speeches and statements become grounds for criminal prosecution. At the moment, more than 340 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our guide .
• Article 207.3 was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 - in this way the authorities responded to anti-war speeches and statements, as well as the dissemination of information about the war that did not come from official Russian sources. The maximum penalty under this article is 15 years in prison.