A court in St. Petersburg sent the alleged administrator of the Belaya Mast channel to pre-trial detention on charges of inciting hatred

The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg sent the alleged administrator of the Belaya Mast telegram channel, Mark Filippov, to a pre-trial detention center. This was reported by the joint press service of the city courts.

Filippov is accused of inciting hatred or enmity on the Internet by an organized group (clause “c” of Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). He refused to admit guilt in the case and asked the court to assign him a more lenient preventive measure.

According to investigators, the St. Petersburg resident and other persons “adhering to nationalist ideology” united into an organized group to commit terrorist crimes and used the groups “White Suit” and “Moscow Mutual Aid Group” in Telegram and VKontakte. Filippov, as stated in the press service, “ensures the preparation and publication of materials with calls for extremist and terrorist activities.”

On August 27 , it became known that a court in Moscow arrested the alleged administrator of the Belaya Mast telegram channel, Artem Zepp, and the wife of convicted neo-Nazi Nikola Korolev, Veronica Korolev. The reason for their criminal prosecution was also their publications in “White Suit” and “Moscow Mutual Assistance Group”.

The Queen is accused of publicly calling for terrorism on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). Zepp, in addition to this article, is also charged with inciting hatred or hostility towards a group of persons on the basis of race, nationality and origin (clause “c” of Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code) and calls for extremist activity (Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code).

On August 24, according to Fontanka , security forces conducted searches of neo-Nazis in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The investigative actions were led by employees of the capital's department of the Investigative Committee. According to the publication, the investigation believes that members of the “White Suit” interacted with representatives of the “Russian Volunteer Corps,” fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army against Russia.

As previously reported in the Belaya Suit telegram channel, the case of inciting hatred or enmity and calls for extremism was opened on November 11, 2022. Later, on July 5, 2023, a case was opened on calls for terrorism - the reason was the publication of February 27, 2020.

According to White Suit, the materials include, among other things, posts dated January 1 and January 16, 2019. In them, the authors of the telegram channel congratulated followers on the New Year and wished their comrades released from the colonies “to no longer be captured by the dogs of the regime,” and also told how to attack “black violators of the white order” and carry out “direct action.” In the publication of “White Suit” dated February 27, 2020, Anton Konev, who attacked the FSB department in the Khabarovsk Territory in 2017, is called a hero.