Yabloko municipal deputy in St. Petersburg accused of “discrediting the armed forces”
Press Release, 6.08.2022
Photo: Dmitry Baltrukov / Photo from Dmitry Baltrukov’s personal archive
Dmitry Baltrukov, a Yabloko deputy of the municipal council of the municipality Smolninskoye in St.Petersburg, was accused of “discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation”. The district police officer informed Baltrukov of this after monitoring his social media accounts by the Centre for Combating Extremism (Centre E).
Centre E considered that Dmitry’s publications on VKontakte on 24 February, where he said that he had applied for a rally against a “special military operation”, were “discrediting the army”. At that time, pacifistic statements were not considered an offence.
“Not only is the act they accuse me of [informing about the submitted application for holding a rally], was committed before the adoption of Article 20.3.3 [“discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation”], it is also unclear how the post could discredit the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” Balrukov comments on the accusation.
It should be noted that earlier a protocol on “discrediting the armed forces” was drawn up against Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St.Petersburg. The police decided that publications by Shishlov on what was happening in the Legislative Assembly was an administrative offense of “discrediting the armed forces”.
Posted: August 17th, 2022 under Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Russia-Ukraine relations, Yabloko's Regional Branches, Без рубрики.