A case of repeated discrediting of the army was brought to court in Kasimov

The reason for the prosecution of Vasily Bolshakov was a post and comments on VKontakte.

On September 8, 2023, the Kasimovsky City Court of the Ryazan Region received a criminal case against Vasily Bolshakov, accused under Part 1 of Art. 280.3 of the Criminal Code (public actions aimed at discrediting the armed forces , committed after bringing to administrative responsibility).

The case became known on February 14, 2023, when Bolshakov’s home was searched. According to his wife, during the attack the Kasimov man was handcuffed and beaten.

The reason for the prosecution was a post that Bolshakov published on VKontakte on November 9, 2022. It contained an anecdote about the withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson.

On April 3, 2023, it became known that another case was opened against Bolshakov under the same article. This time, the investigation saw discreditation of the armed forces in 12 comments that Bolshakov left on September 22, 2022 under another user’s post on VKontakte. In them, he spoke out against the special military operation and called for sabotaging the mobilization. The investigator gave Bolshakov an obligation to appear.

Subsequently, the cases were combined into one proceeding. On August 19, 2023, Bolshakov was charged.

Earlier, in July 2022, Bolshakov was fined 30 thousand rubles under Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on discrediting the use of the army and the activities of Russian officials abroad due to a comment on VKontakte. The court decision said that the comment contained “a negative assessment of the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to conduct a military special operation on the territory of Ukraine, which characterizes these actions as fascist, associated with genocide (aimed at destroying the people of Ukraine).”

From our point of view, the introduction into legislation of a ban on discrediting the actions of the Russian armed forces and government agencies abroad was an unjustified restriction of 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. There were no such calls in Bolshakov’s publications.

Sources

• The case about the joke about the retreat from Kherson and other publications was submitted to the court of the Ryazan region // OVD-Info. 2023. September 13.
• Another case was opened against resident Kasimov, who was persecuted because of a joke - because of a dispute about mobilization // OVD-News. 2023. April 3.
• A resident of the Ryazan region is accused of repeatedly discrediting the RF Armed Forces.In February, he was searched // OVD-News. 2023. March 23.
• Criminal case card No. 5-441/2022 // Kasimovsky District Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. 2023. March.