Press Release, 15.11.2022

Photo: Alexander Makhankov / Photo from social media

The Pushkinsky District Court decided not to prosecute Alexander Makhankovm Chairman of the Yabloko branch in Pushkinsky District of St.Petersburg. The hearings took place on Tuesday, 15 November.

The reason for initiating the proceedings under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses were Makhankov’s leaflets, which he distributed as a candidate for the elections to the Municipal Council of Pushkinsky District of St.Petersburg (https://eng.yabloko.ru/29607-2/ ). The leaflets contained a photo of the candidate and his call for peace (“I and Yabloko Vote for Peace!”).

The case was based on an anonymous examination of the leaflets, the authors of which came to the conclusion that the leaflet were “discrediting the army,” Makhankov said. His interests were represented in court by a member of the Bureau of the St. Petersburg Yabloko, Alexander Kobrinsky.

“In addition, it was written in the protocol that I was discrediting the special operation, calling it a war. Although neither the first nor the second was mentioned in my materials. They also wanted to impute the illegality of the distribution of such materials to me, but the police did not bother to prove it in any way,” Makhankov said.

It should be noted that a little over a month ago, on 27 September, the Pushkinsky Distrcit Court already found Alexander Makhankov guilty of “discrediting” the Russian Armed Forces in another case filed against him. The reason was his publications on VKontakte social meida, where he mentioned the special military operation. Makhankov was then sentenced (https://eng.yabloko.ru/chairman-of-a-yabloko-branch-in-the-leningrad-region-fined-for-discrediting-the-army/ ) to a fine of 30,000 roubles, but he appealed against it in the City Court. However, the hearing in the court of a higher instance has not yet taken place.

As of today, at least 30 activists of the Yabloko party got 38 protocols on “discrediting the army”, but not a single complaint against the decision of the courts was satisfied. Only Lyubov Zhiltsova, a teacher and a Yabloko deputy of the Palkinsky District Assembly in the Pskov Region, was able to challenge her fine, after which the police appealed the court’s decision, and upon a new consideration, Zhiltsova was nevertheless found guilty and fined (https://eng.yabloko.ru/28697-2/ ).

Read more about the persecution of Yabloko members after the start of the “special operation”: https://www.yabloko.ru/war-against-yabloko