The Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction upheld the sentence of Nikolai Daineko, a defendant in the Mayakovsky Readings, to four years in a general regime penal colony. This was reported by the court's press service.
There are three defendants in the Mayakovsky Readings case: Daineko and underground poets Artem Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba. Daineko's case was considered separately: in March 2023,it became known that he had entered into a pre-trial agreement with the investigation. In May, the man was sentenced to four years in prison, and in July, the Moscow City Court upheld the sentence. In December, he was transferred to IK-2 in the city of Pokrov in the Vladimir Region.
The case against the poets was opened at the end of September 2022, after the Mayakovsky Readings, which became "anti-mobilization". The reason for opening the case was the poem "Kill Me, Militiaman", which Kamardin read during the event. Since then, the men have been in pretrial detention.
The investigation believes that Kamardin thus incited hatred towards "participants in military actions in the LPR and DPR." Shtovba and Daineko were charged as accomplices in the case: according to the investigation, they "repeated Kamardin's work out loud and raised their hands up." At first, the young men were charged with paragraph "a" of Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code, which was then replaced with paragraph "b" - that is, instead of threatening violence, they were charged with acting as an organized group.
In March, they were charged with calls for anti-state activity (Part 3 of Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code). The investigation believes that Kamardin called in his poems "not to accept" summonses from the hands of military registration and enlistment office representatives, "not to sign" documents on receipt of summonses, and "not to appear" for them.
Kamardinspoke of torture and sexualized violence during the search. The Investigative Committee launched an investigation into his statement, but subsequently found no violations in the actions of the security forces.
- Since February 24, 2022 — the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine — residents of Russian cities have been taking part in anti-war protests and talking about the tragedy online every day. Anti-war speeches and statements are becoming grounds for criminal prosecution. At the moment, more than 900 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protests against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .
- After the war in Ukraine began, the Russian authorities began to react sharply to protest sentiments. The list of articles under which those speaking out against the war are prosecuted is quite broad. The defendants in "anti-war cases" are often charged with hooliganism, vandalism, violence against government officials, and other violations. Articles introduced into the Criminal Code after the start of military operations also became a significant element of pressure - the dissemination of "fakes" about the Russian army and discrediting the armed forces.