The expert could not confirm that Sasha Skochilenko deliberately distorted information about the war

An expert in the field of linguistics and political science, Olga Safonova, was unable to confirm during questioning in court that the artist Sasha Skochilenko “deliberately reflected deliberately false information” in her “anti-war price tags,” although she had previously used such wording in her examination. The Mediazona report talks about this.

The publication quotes a fragment of Safonova’s interrogation, which was conducted by defense expert Svetlana Drugoveyko-Dolzhanskaya:

— You used the word “intentionally.” Can you say that Skochilenko knew about the falsity of the information and deliberately reflected false information in her price tags?

- No.

After this, the court, at the request of the prosecutor, postponed the hearing to June 13.

During the interrogation, Safonova said that she assessed the consistency of the information disseminated by Skochilenko with the official information of the Ministry of Defense - this is what she considered to be an assessment of reliability.

However, as official sources, the expert used the RBC website, the Life.ru website, the “war on fakes in the Russian Federation” website and anonymous telegram channels, for example, “zet dot mir.”

Safonova considered the statement: “Russian conscripts are being sent to Ukraine” to be false information, noting that at the time the corresponding price tag was distributed, the conscripts had already been taken out of the combat zone. The defense recalled that even the Ministry of Defense reported: “Unfortunately, several facts of the participation of conscripts in the Northern Military District on the territory of Ukraine were discovered. Almost all conscripts have been withdrawn from the combat zone.” The prosecution expert agreed that there was “a slight distortion” in her conclusion.

On September 24, 2022, the Investigative Committee brought charges against Skochilenko in the case of disseminating “fakes” about the Russian army based on political hatred (clause “d”, part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, she replaced price tags in the Perekrestok store with leaflets with information about the shelling of the Mariupol drama theater and the death of civilians.

On April 11, 2022, the artist was detained , and two days later she was sent into custody. The girl admitted distributing the leaflets, but does not consider herself guilty and denies that she disseminated false information.

• 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 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.