Press Release, 4.10.2023

Photo: Valery Kochnev / Photo by the Novgorod branch of Yabloko

On 3 October, the Judge of the Novgorod District Court recognised Valery Kochneva guilty of demonstration of the Nazi swastika and fined him 2.000 roubles. The defence was denied a linguistic examination of the video for the song “Zombie” by the Irish group Cranberries, which was published on Kochnev’s page on the VKontakte social media: the court was satisfied with the report by Alina Plotnikova, an investigator at the Centre for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who had conducted an “inspection of Valery Kochnev’s page”. The police equated the footage from the times of Nazi Germany used by the creators of the video with propaganda of Nazism. The court’s decision will be appealed.

It should be noted that the court hearing on the administrative case of the Yabloko candidate Valery Kochnev was postponed in order to hear an expert from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The expert stated that she did not conduct a linguistic examination of the text, since the song was in English. The police officer did not analyse the video along with the text either, since she was not an expert in this, and no one had set such tasks for her.

In addition, Kochnev has repeatedly stated that he himself did not post the video clip by the Cranberries group on Vkontakte. The candidate’s page was hacked by scammers, which was confirmed by Yabloko members: Kochnev’s friends received messages from his page asking them to lend him some money, also strange posts appeared on his page. Valery Kochnev suggested that the video clip of the group was posted at the same time.

It should be also noted that administrative protocols for “demonstration of extremist symbols” were drawn up against Yabloko candidates Valery Kochnev and Oksana Sergeyeva a few days before voting in the elections of deputies to the Novgorod City Duma. The court hearings were scheduled after the elections.

The trial in the case against Oksana Sergeyeva, the current deputy of the Council of the Yermolinsky rural settlement, will be held on 5 October at 15:00. The deputy will be tried for posting photographs with a white-blue-white flag.

The punishment under Article 20.3 of the Administrative Code, which is imposed on candidates from Yabloko in Veliky Novgorod, implies a fine of up to 2,000 roubles or an arrest of up to 15 days. In addition, those found guilty under this article are deprived of the right to be elected for a year. Oksana Sergeyeva’s parliamentary powers expire next year.

In 2022, Andrei Morev, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Yabloko and the former head of the Yakimanka District Council in Moscow, and several other party candidates were deprived of the opportunity to become deputies under the same article.