The sixth cassation court of general jurisdiction in Samara upheld the sentence of seven years in a general regime colony to the former co-chairman of the Togliatti branch of the PARNAS party Andrei Balin in the case of anti-war posts. This is reported by his lawyer from OVD-Info, Zakhar Lebedev.
In March 2023, the Central District Court of Tolyatti found Balin guilty under the article on disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army based on political hatred (clause “d”, part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). He was charged with six posts on VKontakte dedicated to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The prosecutor's office demanded that the politician be sentenced to nine years in prison, but the court sentenced him to two years less. In addition to imprisonment, he was also banned from administering websites for four years.
The Samara Regional Court approved the verdict in July 2023.
The Samara Investigative Committee opened a criminal case about military “fakes” in June 2022. Balin became a suspect more than a month later. On July 20, the politician was ordered not to leave the place as a preventive measure, and on the same day he was charged. After the verdict, Balin was taken into custody and placed in pre-trial detention center-4 in the Samara region.
Balin was previously prosecuted on administrative charges. In July 2022, the regional court approved a fine of 30 thousand rubles under the article on calls for sanctions (Article 20.3.4 of the Administrative Code). This case was brought against Balin because of posts on social networks about the imposition of sanctions against Russian officials. In addition, the activist was fined 35 thousand rubles under the article on discrediting the army (Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) due to a post on VKontakte.
In prison, Andrei Balin faces pressure. So, in the pre-trial detention center, a cellmate threatened him with imprisonment, but in the colony the man is not given letters.
- On September 8, 2014, the Central District Court of Tolyatti sentenced Andrey Balin to 100 hours of compulsory work in the case of inciting hatred (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). The politician was charged with this article twice. The reason for the case was publications on Facebook, in one of which the politician wrote that industrial production is “the lot of blacks, Chinese and Kazakhstanis, not white people.” In the verdict, the post was quoted differently: in it, the security forces replaced Kazakhs with Kazakhs, and the Chinese with Hans.
- In May 2023, the Supreme Court decided to liquidate the opposition People's Freedom Party (PARNAS). The Ministry of Justice made this demand to the court, according to which the party violated the requirement for the number of regional branches: they must function in at least half of the constituent entities of the federation. Previously, the courts liquidated the regional branches of PARNAS in Chuvashia , St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk .
- 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 800 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .