Press Release 30.11.2022

Photo: Alexander Makhankov / Photo from social media

On 28 November, the St. Petersburg City Court upheld the decision of the Pushkinsky District Court against Alexander Makhankov, the Chairman of the Yabloko branch in the Pushkinsky district, who had been found guilty of “discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”. Makhankov was fined 30,000 roubles.

The reason for the case was Makhankov’s comment in April 2022 in a group on the VKontakte social media dedicated to the village of Shushary. He commented on news on collection of humanitarian aid for Donbass by Vitaly Milonov, a State Duma deputy from United Russia. The court considered his words that if the Russian troops had been withdrawn from the Donbass, then no humanitarian assistance would have been required as “discrediting the Armed Forces”.

Makhankov was defended in both instances by Alexander Kobrinsky, a human rights lawyer and member of the Bureau of the St. Petersburg branch of Yabloko.

“In addition to the fact that these words are the implementation of the constitutional right of a citizen to express his opinion (this right, apparently, was canceled by the deputies of the State Duma without any prior notice), courts’ decisions represent a mockery of the limitation period for bringing to administrative responsibility. This three-month period expired in this case in July, while the denunciation that one of the “true communists” wrote about him did not take place until the end of August. However, the statute of limitations for statements on the Internet has been virtually canceled: judicial practice believes that counting of the period of limitations begins only from the moment the police officers “detect an offense”. There is already information on the facts when people were held accountable for their words posted on the Internet many years ago,” Kobrinsky said.

He intends to appeal the decisions of the courts to the Third Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction, and, if necessary, to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Alexander Makhankov had another fine under the article on “discrediting the army”. Then the reason was the campaigning at the municipal campaign in the elections to the Pushkinsky District Municipal Council in 2022. The leaflets contained a general call for peace, without mentioning any military operation or any army. This fine was successfully challenged, the City Court dismissed the case.

In total, since the beginning of the so-called “special operation” 38 administrative protocols on “discrediting the army” have been drawn up against 30 activists of the Yabloko party. The amount of all the fines that were assigned to Yabloko under these and other administrative protocols against Yabloko activists because of their pacifist position totals 2,356,500 roubles.