Press Release, 25.04.2023

Photo: The Pskov Region Assembly of Deputies / Photo by sobranie.pskov.ru

At the April session, the Pskov region parliamentarians refused to support and send to the State Duma a draft resolution submitted by Yabloko MP Artur Gaiduk on the release of people brought to criminal responsibility or convicted for the first time under articles on “fakes about the army”, “discrediting the army” and “calls for sanctions against Russia”.

Chairman of the Assembly Alexander Kotov (from the United Russia Party) noted that federal legislators are, on the contrary, toughening the punishment under these articles. Alexander Bratchikov (also from United Russia), Chairman of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Fiscal Policies, asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to give a legal assessment of the Pskov Yabloko’s bill on amnesty and check whether it violates the law. A representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, who was present at the session, said that the Public Prosecutor’s Office did not see any signs of a violation of the law.

One deputy (Arthur Gaiduk from Yabloko) voted in support of the amnesty project, 17 voted against, three abstained.

A similar draft resolution was introduced in March by the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma.

According to the Human Rights Centre Memorial, 47 people were deprived of freedom for their anti-war stand, under articles about fakes and discrediting the army only, during the year of military censorship. Among them are journalist and Yabloko member Mikhail Afanasyv, municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, artist Alexandra Skochilenko, politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin, and many others.