Press Release, 12.11.2025

Photo: Marina Zheleznyakova / Photo from personal archive

Primorsky Regional Court in Vladivostok concluded on 12 November consideration of the case on “rehabilitation of Nazism” against Marina Zheleznyakova, Deputy Chair of the party’s regional branch in the Maritime Territory. The jury found her guilty of posting a message with a personal opinion and historical facts on Telegram in 2021. For this, the court imposed on Zheleznyakova a fine of two million roubles with instalments over 40 months. Yabloko categorically disagrees with the court’s decision, and the accusation of Zheleznyakova of “rehabilitation of Nazism” is absurd and inflated from historical facts that until recently could be found in school textbooks, party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov stated. Lawyer Sergei Valiulin, defending Zheleznyakova, intends to appeal the decision.

The story of “rehabilitation of Nazism” by the Deputy Chair of the Maritime Territory Yabloko branch has dragged on for several years. In May 2021, Marina Zheleznyakova published on Telegram a post about the USSR’s activities during World War II. Three years later — in May 2024 — a criminal case was opened against her under Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code (“rehabilitation of Nazism”), and 18 months, in August 2025, the court began considering the case materials.

From the indictment it followed that Marina Zheleznyakova, by posting her message on a Telegram channel, “committed a crime of moderate gravity against peace and humanity’s security”, disseminating false information “for an unlimited circle of persons”. Marina Zheleznyakova’s defence was conducted by lawyer Sergei Valiulin. During proceedings, he insisted that Zheleznyakova used historically confirmed facts in the publication and expressed her own opinion, and, therefore, could not have committed the crime imputed to her.

Nevertheless, at the court hearing in September, an expert for the prosecution spoke, who conducted a linguistic examination of Zheleznyakova’s text and concluded that the text contained a congratulatory message with a negative assessment of the USSR leadership’s actions. The fact is that Zheleznyakova’s message of 9 May 2021 contained the phrase “communist totalitarian regime”, from which the expert concluded that the accused did not separate the Soviet Union from the political regime that operated within it.

The case was considered with the involvement of a jury and by November moved to the final stage, at which the defence presented to the court character references for Marina Zheleznyakova from Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov, neighbours and colleagues, and she herself received the opportunity to speak in detail in court.

Speaking with her final statement on 7 November, Marina Zheleznyakova first of all thanked the jurors “for an enormous amount of personal time, attention, patience and important questions” that trial participants asked at each stage.

“I wrote this post with a single intention — so that such things would never happen again. Imagine what kind of country we would have if this had not happened!” Zheleznyakova said in court.

Lawyer Sergei Valiulin, speaking in court on 12 November, stated that the requested punishment did not correspond to the “public danger of the committed act”. He reminded that Marina Zheleznyakova’s position remains the same: her opinion should not and cannot be subjected to criminal prosecution. Moreover, the defence emphasised: depriving Marina Zheleznyakova of the right to post any materials online for three years was “excessive”. The amount of the fine that the prosecution demanded, taking into account Zheleznyakova’s financial situation, was an unbearable sum for her, the lawyer noted. He also reminded that his client was a pensioner supporting her elderly mother, and asked the court, in case of imposing a fine, to reduce it to a reasonable amount that Marina Zheleznyakova would be able to pay.

The judge issued a decision to impose a fine of two million roubles with the possibility of paying it in instalments over 40 months.

Yabloko disagrees with the court’s decision, and the accusation of Zheleznyakova of “rehabilitation of Nazism” is absurd and inflated from historical facts that until recently could be found in school textbooks, party Chairman Nikolai Rybakov stated.

Yabloko will continue to support and defend Marina Zheleznyakova, seeking the overturning of her sentence, as in the case of other party members who are being persecuted today for expressing their own opinions, Nikolai Rybakov emphasised.

It should be noted that Marina Zheleznyakova joined Yabloko in 2018 and since 2019 has held the post of Deputy Chair of the Maritime regional branch. During this time, she has achieved impressive results. Here are just some of them. Thanks to her joint work with Legislative Assembly deputies and a public campaign to change legislation on preserving specially protected natural territories, an amendment was adopted prohibiting the liquidation of unique natural territories in cases where their restoration is impossible. After this, not a single such territory has been destroyed in the Maritime Territory. Marina Zheleznyakova was able to organise fundraising for New Year’s gifts for children from the orphanage in Mysovoy settlement, so that they received toys and even a billiard table; together with parents of disabled children, she achieved the installation of a lift at a rehabilitation centre.

This is not the first time she has experienced pressure from security forces in connection with her active work in the region. In March 2022, a search was conducted in her flat, the basis for which was a ruling on conducting an “inspection of premises for the presence of extremist materials and electronic devices”. However, according to security forces, the Zheleznyakova was neither a suspect nor a witness.

A year earlier, a search took place in Marina Zheleznyakova’s flat in Vladivostok within the framework of a criminal case about blocking streets in Moscow, to which she had no connection whatsoever. During the search, violence was used against her husband.