Press Release, 24.08.2022

Photo: Boris Vishnevsky / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Boris Vishnevsky, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko and MP of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, received a response to his appeal to the Public Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, where he asked to explain the principles of the new laws on “discrediting the army” and “fakes about the army”. The Public Prosecutor General said that calling the “special operation” a war is unacceptable, since war is declared by federal law.

In May 2022, Boris Vishnevsky sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov in connection with numerous cases when the authorities brought Russian citizens to responsibility for criticising the “special operation”. In his appeal, Boris Vishnevsky asked for clarification on a number of following legal issues:

• Do citizens of the Russian Federation have the right to publicly express their critical (negative) opinion about the special military operation of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, or any such expression of a critical opinion will be “discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”?
• Is it an offense to publicly display the Ukrainian flag, as well as the blue and yellow colours that representing the colour scheme of this flag?
• Is it an offense to publicly express an opinion that the “special military operation of the Russian Federation” on the territory of Ukraine is a “war with Ukraine”, or is such an expression of opinion permissible?

In the answer, which came only in August, the Public Prosecutor General ignored the first three questions, providing an answer only to the last one.

According to the Public Prosecutor General’s Office, it is impossible to call a “special operation” a war, since the state of war is declared by federal law in certain cases, and thus, “calling a special operation conducted by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine a “war” contradicts the requirements established by the current legislation”.

“The question immediately arises: which requirements of the current legislation does this contradict? Where does the current legislation establish a ban on naming “special” or other operations in this way, and where and in what form is responsibility established for violating this ban?” Boris Vishnevsky comments on the response of the Public Prosecutor General.

Vishnevsky did not rule out the possibility of filing a lawsuit in court so that to oblige the Public Prosecutor General’s office to answer on the merits.

It should be noted that earlier an administrative protocol under the article “discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation” (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) was drawn up against Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly. The administrative case was initiated after the “monitoring of the Internet” carried out by the public prosecutor’s office. According to the public prosecutor office in St.Petersburg, Shishlov “discredited the army” with publications on the VKontakte social media, where he wrote about his activities in the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg. The court hearing that took place on 19 August was postponed due to the appointed forensic examination of Shishlov’s publications. The next hearing will be held in the Petrogradsky District Court on 2 September at 11:00 a.m.

BORIS VISHNEVSKY

is Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko Party, member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and Bureau, and an MP of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg