On June 28, the Central District Court of Komsomolsk-on-Amur received materials from the case of discrediting the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) against activist Oleg Pankov. Information about this appeared on the court's website.
The criminal case against Pankov became known on February 15. At that time, security forces conducted a search of the man's apartment. He was not presented with a warrant, but was only informed that investigative measures were being conducted in connection with a criminal case on discrediting the Russian army. During the search, police officers seized two laptops. Pankov's wife was in the apartment with him.
In April, it became known from the case materials that the activist was being persecuted because he “previously was a member of Navalny’s Komsomolsk-on-Amur headquarters,” “previously participated in the activities of the pro-Western online movement “Open Russia,” and “in his publications supported the destructive activities of LGBT activist Yu.V. Tsvetkova, who was recognized as a foreign agent.”
On April 19, the Khabarovsk Regional Court changed the measure of restraint for a man from a pretrial detention facility to a ban on certain actions.
In May 2022, Pankov was fined under the administrative article on discrediting the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) due to statements about the war on VKontakte and Telegram.
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 950 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protests against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .
Article 280.3 (Public actions aimed at discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation) was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 — this is how the government 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. On March 14, 2023, the State Duma adopted amendments increasing the maximum penalty under this article, since then it has been seven years in prison.