Hot air balloon pilot from Yoshkar-Ola sentenced in absentia in military “fakes” case

The Yoshkar-Ola City Court of Mari El sentenced Dmitry Obmaikin in absentia to five years in a general regime penal colony in the case of disseminating "fakes" about the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine. This was reported to Mediazona by the court's press service.

The 39-year-old hot air balloon pilot left Russia a few days after mobilization began in September 2022.

He told Mediazona that he does not know what exactly his persecution is connected with (clause “d” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code).

On his VKontakte page, Obmaikin reposted “Navalny’s Team” and talked about his participation in the 2019 Moscow protests during the Moscow City Duma elections.

After leaving, the Yoshkar-Ola resident published posts about the consequences of Russian shelling of Ukraine and the crash of Boeing MH-17 , and also added the words "No to war! Put Putin to jail!" to his profile status.