63-year-old Muscovite Mikhail Simonov, sentenced to seven years in prison because of two comments on VKontakte, was transported from pre-trial detention center 5 "Vodnik" in an unknown direction. This was reported by the telegram channel of the support group for political prisoner Dmitry Ivanov, who is in the same pre-trial detention center.

On March 30, the Timiryazevsky District Court of Moscow found Simonov guilty of spreading “fakes” about the Russian military based on political hatred (clause “d”, part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) because of two comments on VKontakte about the war in Ukraine.

Since February 24, 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 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.

A 63-year-old Muscovite, sentenced to seven years because of two comments about the war, was transferred from a pre-trial detention center