Press Release, 4.03.2023

Photo: Mikhail Afanasyev  / Photo from social media

The materials of the criminal case on the dissemination of “fakes about the army” using official position (Article 207.3, Part 2, paragraph “a” of the Criminal Code of the RF) against Mikhail Afanasyev, a member of Yabloko and the editor of the Novy Focus online media, were sent to the Abakan City Court. The Deputy Public Prosecutor of Khakassia approved the indictment. The case file states that the National Guard Afanasyev wrote about in one of his articles is part of the armed forces of the Russian Federation.

It should be noted that Afanasyev has been in custody for almost a year already, the City Court has repeatedly extended the preventive measure, because the investigation could not prove that the journalist disseminated false information about the armed forces of the Russian Federation. The attention of the security forces was attracted by a publication on the website of  the Novy Focus media, which ran that 11 riot police officers from Khakassia refused to go to Ukraine.

The position of the defence in the case is that in the period from 4 March to 5 April, criminal liability for the dissemination of false information extended only to the armed forces of the Russian Federation. In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 5 April, 2016, mobile special forces were included in the structure of the National Guard, and their employees were not military personnel. The material about the Khakassian riot police officers appeared on the website of Novy Focus on 3 April. Later, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was amended and extended to other state bodies of the Russian Federation exercising their powers outside the country, including the riot police (OMON).

Also the investigation accused Mikhail Afanasyev of using his official position. As lawyer Pavel Chikov notes in his Telegram channel, this is the first recorded case when the use of the website is recognised as using an official position. The website was not registered as a mass media, and has never belonged to Afanasyev.

Earlier, the founding legal entity of Novy Focus, whose founder, in turn, is Mikhail Afanasyev, was fined 450,000 roubles for publishing “extremist” materials on the abuses of the security forces on the Novy Focus website. An appeal against the verdict has been filed, but the date of consideration has not been scheduled.

In 2006, the Abakan City Court already tried to confiscate the Novy Focus website for not having a media license. The absurdity of this decision was marked by the legal community.