In Moscow, Ukrainian TV presenters Yanina Sokolova and Natalya Moseichuk began to be tried in absentia

In the Basmanny District Court, indictments were read out in the cases of Ukrainian TV presenters Yanina Sokolova and Natalya Moseychuk, a Mediazona correspondent reports.

Sokolova is charged with two counts of inciting ethnic hatred (clause “a” of Part 2 of Article 282). According to investigators, on August 5, 2022, the journalist “in order to influence people’s consciousness” gave an interview to the “Great Lviv Speaks” program of the Ukrainian TV channel NTA , during which she “justified violent actions against Russians.”

On December 10 of the same year, on the YouTube channel “Evening with Yanina Sokolova,” she made a public statement that “formed contempt” and “justified violence” against Russians, the indictment says.

A criminal case was opened against the presenter of the “1+1” channel, Moseychuk, because of a broadcast on March 20, 2022, in which she “made a statement that was contemptuous of Russians and justified violence against them.” She is also accused of “inciting hatred” (clause “b” of Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code).

The head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered the initiation of a criminal case against Sokolova in August 2022. The department reported that the TV presenter on NTA “openly expressed threats against representatives of the Russian people, noting the need for their merciless destruction.” Then the pro-war telegram channels published a fragment of the program “Great Lvov Speaks” not from August 5, but from July 30, where Sokolova said that Russians fighting in Ukraine should not be taken prisoner.

In March 2023, Sokolova was added to the Rosfinmonitoring register of terrorists and extremists, and in August she was put on the wanted list. Moseychuk was put on the wanted list in July 2023.