The Court of Appeal approved the verdict of the Ivanovo architect under Art. 354.1 CC

The reason for the criminal prosecution of Sergei Volkov was his statements about Stalin and the siege of Leningrad. The court fined him two million rubles.

On February 28, 2024, the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction upheld the verdict that the Ivanovo Regional Court handed down to the architect Sergei Volkov on September 26, 2023. Based on the results of the case being considered by the jury, he was found guilty under paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code (distribution on the Internet of knowingly false information about the activities of the USSR during the Second World War) and was fined two million rubles

This was the second hearing of Volkov's case. At the end of the first trial, on March 1, 2023, the court dismissed the jury just before the verdict was announced. It was reported that after receiving the verdict from the jury, the judge first stated that there were inconsistencies in the question paper and then that one of the jurors might be biased. Finally, he announced that the jury had been deliberating about its verdict, which had not yet been announced, and that the court staff had heard it. Volkov's defense suggested that the judge's actions were related to the fact that the jury returned a not guilty verdict. On June 21, 2023, the Ivanovo Regional Court began a retrial. On July 12, 2023, the jury returned a guilty verdict.

The case against a resident of Ivanovo was opened in May 2022 by the investigative department of the Russian Investigative Committee for the Ivanovo region based on materials from the regional FSB Directorate. The reason for the persecution was a fragment of an online discussion that Volkov published on June 8, 2021 in his Telegram channel “Slavic-pagan culture today.” The post stated that during the Great Patriotic War, German troops did not close a complete ring around Leningrad, the Soviet authorities still had the opportunity to send food there, but “Stalin abandoned the city as unnecessary and almost captured.” The author added that the charges related to the siege of Leningrad were dropped against the defendants at the Nuremberg trial (note that the siege of Leningrad is not specifically mentioned in the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal). Volkov also stated that until 1941, “Stalin and Hitler were strong allies,” and National Socialism during that period was “quite strongly celebrated in the USSR.” Finally, the publication said that Stalin was personally guilty of starting the war “no less than Hitler,” since he “fuelled this mess without expecting that it would turn against him.”

In our opinion, unusual interpretations, ignorance, misrepresentation and even deliberate distortion of historical facts should not be grounds for criminal prosecution, unless they contain propaganda of hatred, violence and discrimination. We do not see such propaganda in Volkov’s post: he criticized the Soviet leadership, but did not justify or praise the actions of the Nazis. Therefore, we are inclined to consider the prosecution of the Ivanovo citizen under Art. 354.1 of the Criminal Code, although it should be noted that other posts in the channel “Slavic-Pagan Culture Today” had a pronounced ultra-right orientation and could arouse the natural interest of law enforcement agencies.

Sources

• Criminal case card No. 55-137/2024 // First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction. 2024. February 28.
• The Ivanovo Regional Court approved the verdict for a local architect in the case of the rehabilitation of Nazism // OVD-Info. 2024. February 28.
• The court in Ivanovo sentenced the architect Sergei Volkov to a fine under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism // PZK "Memorial". 2023. September 26.
• Criminal case card No. 2-5/2023 (2-16/2022;) // Ivanovo Regional Court. 2023. July 12. https://t.me/sud_37/184 A panel of jurors rendered a guilty verdict in a criminal case accusing a resident of Ivanovo of committing a crime under paragraph 2 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation // COURT37. Courts of general jurisdiction of the Ivanovo region. 2023. July 12.
• Tatiana Prokopenko, Maxim Shishkin. In Ivanovo, the case of the rehabilitation of Nazism is being considered by a jury // IvanovoNews. 2023. June 21.
• The court in Ivanovo dismissed the jury after the verdict; The defense believes that the local architect was found not guilty of rehabilitating Nazism // Mediazona. 2023. March 1.
• The criminal case on the rehabilitation of Nazism will be considered by a new jury. Print version // Ivanovo Regional Court. 2023. March 2.
• Based on materials from social networks.