The ex-coordinator of the Chelyabinsk “Voice” Natalya Guseva was finally charged in the case of military “fakes” (Part 1 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by her lawyer from OVD-Info Oleg Stepanov.
The case against Guseva was opened in June, and in August they came to search her house. The investigation considered the posts on Odnoklassniki to be “fake”, as well as the commentary about Russian troops committing “crimes against the civilian population on the territory of Ukraine, including the shelling of a drama theater in Mariupol on March 16, 2022.”
The Telegram channel “Chelyabinsk of the Future” quoted an expert opinion: “The user’s publication <...> contains the following information about the activities of government bodies of the Russian Federation:
1) the current President of the Russian Federation ordered the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to drop a bomb on the Mariupol Drama Theater;
2) the current President of the Russian Federation ordered a bomb to be dropped on the drama theater, as he decided to take revenge on the people of Mariupol for digging trenches in 2014 to escape Russian tanks.”
In May, a court in Zlatoust fined Natalya Guseva 30 thousand rubles under the administrative article on discrediting the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) because of two anti-war posts on Odnoklassniki. The publications on Guseva’s page talked about the need to stop the war and withdraw troops from the occupied territories, as well as about the 59 children who were held in the basement of the village of Yagodnoye by Russian soldiers.
On November 23, the case against Natalya Guseva was submitted to the Zlatoust City Court for consideration on the merits. OVD-Info found a case file on the institution’s website.
- throughout Russia On August 17, searches were carried out at the homes of activists and members of the “Voice” in the case of organizing the work of an undesirable NGO (Part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code), which was brought against the co-chairman of the movement Grigory Melkonyants and the coordinator of the movement Vladimir Egorov.
- 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 750 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.