The case of a resident of the Voronezh region about repeated discrediting of the army was brought to court

The criminal case of 41-year-old Voronezh resident Evgeniy Tronev under the article of repeated discrediting of the army was transferred to the Pavlovsky district court of the region at the end of April. Information about this appeared on the court’s website, and AvtozakLive drew attention to it.

The case against Tronev under the article on discrediting the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) was opened in November 2022 due to reposts made in June and July in the messenger “on a channel publicly accessible to an indefinite number of persons,” of which he was the administrator.

The FSB together with the police detained the man. It was reported that Tronev confessed.

In April, the man was fined under an administrative article about discrediting the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). A ruling on his case was published on the website of the Pavlovsky District Court. According to the document, the man was fined 15 thousand rubles because of a comment on VKontakte. Tronev did not admit guilt, saying that he expressed his civilian position on the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

• Since February 24, 2022—the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine—residents of Russian cities have been holding anti-war protests every day and talking about the tragedy online. Anti-war speeches and statements become grounds for criminal prosecution. At the moment, more than 550 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .
• Article 280.3 (Public actions aimed at discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation) was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 - in this way the government 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. On March 14, 2023, the State Duma adopted amendments increasing the maximum penalty under this article, since then it has been seven years in prison.