Press Release, 25.09.2025

Photo: Marina Zheleznyakova / Photo by the Yabloko branch in the Maritime Territory

Since August 2025, Primorsky Regional Court has been hearing a criminal case brought under Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code (“Rehabilitation of Nazism”) against Marina Zheleznyakova, Deputy Chair of the Yabloko regional branch in Maritime Territory. She is charged with alleged dissemination of “deliberately false information about the USSR’s activities during the Second World War” made in her Telegram post on 9 May 2021. The criminal case was opened three years later – in 2024. At the defence’s request, a jury has been brought into the case.

The indictment states that Marina Zheleznyakova, by posting her message on a Telegram channel, “committed a medium-gravity crime against peace and security of mankind”.

On 23 September the court heard an expert who conducted linguistic analysis of Zheleznyakova’s text. The expert said that the text contained a congratulatory message with a negative assessment of the USSR leadership’s actions during World War II.

Until recently, the proceedings were not covered in mass media, but at the last hearing a journalist appeared in the court room for the first time. It is possible that he was invited so that the expert’s position would be reported by the media, and this discussion would have an indirect influence on the jury.

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov considers the persecution of Marina Zheleznyakova to be political:

“Local authorities needed a pretext to force our colleague to keep silent. Since 2021, law enforcement has persecuted Marina – they wiretapped her phone, came to search her home, and seized equipment. And in the end they made up a case from historical facts that until recently had been described in school textbooks. Marina’s post was dedicated to the heroic feat of the Soviet people in the struggle for life and freedom [in WWII]. Those who saw rehabilitation of Nazism in it have a poor understanding of our people’s tragedy in World War II. Marina Zheleznyakova is a true patriot of our country, who loves it with all its difficult legacy and strives to overcome it for the sake of a better future.”

The next court hearing will take place on 26 September.