Press Release, 12.04.2022

Photo: Alexander Goncharenko / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 11 April, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Barnaul found Alexander Goncharenko, a member of the Federal Bureau of the Yabloko party and Chairman of the Altai regional branch of Yabloko, guilty under a new article on “discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation” and fined him 30,000 roubles.

The security forces paid attention on the entry in the politician’s blog on the website of the Yabloko party, which was published on 2 March, before the law on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces came into force. In the blog “I don’t want and I can’t be silent,” Goncharenko wrote that it “hurt him to watch Russian people kill Ukrainians, and Ukrainians forced to kill Russians”. In the photo, the politician is standing with a banner running “NO ** ***!”.

The report on an administrative offense was drawn up on 30 March by police major Daria Sharovatova. The police inspector and Judge of the Oktyabrsky District Court Yelena Podberezko were not embarrassed that the blog entry appeared a week before the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses.

Earlier, the same article with fines was applied to Yabloko members Yaroslav Revenko from Taganrog (60,000 roubles), Valentin Grushevsky from Kemerovo (35,000 roubles), and an administrative protocol was drawn up against Anatoly Nogovitsyn from Yakutsk, but there has been no trial yet. Also, a protocol was drawn up against Vladimir Dorokhov, Chairman of the Tula branch of Yabloko, for a post on social networks made before the amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses came into force.

Read more about the persecution of Yabloko members after the start of the “special operation”.