Press Release, 11.04.2019

A criminal case was initiated by the police on publication of a fake newspaper imitating Pskov Yabloko’s Grazhdanin (Citizen) paper. The criminal case against an indefinite number of persons was raised under Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Libel).

Lev Shlosberg, MP of the Pskov Regional Assembly and Chairman of the regional branch of Yabloko in the Pskov region, learned about this from the resolution of the investigator handed to Shlosberg at the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 10 April.

On 28 March, at a session of the regional parliament, Shlosberg asked Yuri Instrankin, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Pskov Region, who was making a report to the parliament, why nothing had been done to investigate the case for seven and a half months since the crime. Then the head of department could not answer in detail, but promised to give an answer later.

In early August 2018, a completely falsified paper imitating the Pskov Yabloko newspaper Grazhdanin was distributed in the Nevelsky, Velikoluksky, Loknyansky, Opochetsky and Pskov districts of the Pskov region, where candidates from the Pskov Yabloko ran in the elections.

In addition to branded stylistic elements, the fraudulent paper contained names, photographs and phone numbers of specific candidates for the posts of heads of districts and specific journalists, the articles of the faked paper contained public insults against voters and Nazi propaganda.

On 13 August, Lev Shlosberg filed an application to initiate a criminal case under the article “Label”. The application was addressed to Yuri Instrankin, and the department of inquiry of the Department of Internal Affairs transferred the materials to the interior department in the Pskov district. But nothing had been done for almost eight months, the necessary expertise was not made, the case was closed twice by the investigator due to the “absence of corpus delicti”, but the Public Prosecutor’s Office twice canceled these decisions of the investigator.

Commenting on the criminal case, Lev Shlosberg said: “Certainly, if the case were initiated in August 2018, immediately after the publication of a fake newspaper, the chances of its disclosure would have been higher than now. However, our perseverance, constant attention to this case, the fact that each time we did not agree with the decision to close the criminal case, appeals to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, our public question to the head of the interior department [in the Pskov region] during his report to the regional Assembly, led to fact when the obvious decision has been finally made. In the future, we hope for active, comprehensive and impartial actions of the investigation. In this situation I can only express hope and should not express skepticism. But we understand where the wind is coming from, the investigation will be difficult.”