The prosecutor requested nine years in prison for the ex-co-chairman of the Samara branch of PARNAS

The state prosecutor, at a meeting in the Central District Court of Togliatti, requested nine years in prison for the ex-co-chairman of the Samara branch of PARNAS, Andrei Balin. This was reported by lawyer from OVD-Info Zakhar Lebedev.

Balin is accused of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army based on political hatred (clause “d”, part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) because of six posts on VKontakte about the war in Ukraine.

The case against the man became known in September 2022. The Samara Region Investigative Committee opened the case on June 10, and Balin became a suspect on July 16.

On July 20, 2022, the politician was given a written undertaking not to leave the place as a preventive measure, and on the same day he was charged.

The oppositionist was also persecuted in administrative cases. On July 19, the Samara Regional Court approved the decision of the lower court on a fine of 30 thousand rubles under the article on calls for sanctions (Article 20.3.4 of the Administrative Code). This case was brought against Balin because of posts on social networks about the imposition of sanctions against Russian officials.

In addition, Balin was fined under the article on discrediting the army (Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). On May 12, the court imposed a fine of 35 thousand rubles on the politician because of a post on VKontakte. The case materials do not indicate which publication in question.

17:36 The prosecutor also proposed banning Balin from administering websites for five years after serving his sentence.

• On September 8, 2014, the Central District Court of Tolyatti sentenced Andrey Balin to 100 hours of compulsory work in the case of inciting hatred (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). The politician was charged with this article twice. The reason for the case was publications on Facebook, in one of which the politician wrote that industrial production is “the lot of blacks, Chinese and Kazakhstanis, not white people.” In the verdict, the post was quoted differently: in it, the security forces replaced Kazakhs with Kazakhs, and the Chinese with Hans.
• On June 30, 2016, Balin’s apartment was searched in a case of inciting hatred (Article 282 of the Criminal Code) because of a Facebook post dated July 15, 2015 about employees of state security agencies.
• 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 430 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 (Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation) 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 does not come from official Russian sources. The maximum penalty under this article is 15 years in prison.