Expensive discredit – Newspaper Kommersant No. 69 (7514) dated 04/20/2023

For fakes about the army, they are sent to jail, and so far only fined for discrediting the armed forces, follows from the data of judicial statistics for the past year. So far, these new articles of the Criminal Code, introduced after the start of the special operation, are just beginning to be used, and the largest number of sentences “for words” are still issued for calls for extremist activity.

Last year, 14 people were convicted for disseminating knowingly false information about the activities of the armed forces (fake news), two were sentenced to real imprisonment for terms of 3 to 5 years and 5 to 8 years, according to the statistics of the Judicial Department published recently. at the Supreme Court. In fact, at least three sentences are known under this article for terms of more than five years: the ex-head of the Krasnoselsky district Ilya Yashin (included in the register of foreign agents) received eight and a half years in a penal colony, the former Mundep Alexei Gorinov received seven years in a penal colony, journalist Alexander Nevzorov (included in the register of foreign agents) – eight years in prison in absentia. But not all of these decisions came into force by the end of the year – for example, the Moscow City Court approved the sentence to Ilya Yashin only on April 19.

Four more defendants in cases of fakes about the army last year were given suspended sentences, four were sentenced to hard labor and four were fined a total of 4.7 million rubles.

But for discrediting the army (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code) they are not yet imprisoned: for the whole of last year, according to official statistics, three people were convicted for it. And only in two cases it was the main corpus delicti. In both cases, the case ended in fines totaling 250,000 rubles.

The article on fakes implies punishment for asserting facts that did not exist, and this is confirmed by the official position of the competent authorities, lawyer Alexander Peredruk explains. A value judgment can be recognized as discredit, even if it was not connected with a discussion of the facts, but in one way or another discredited the reputation of the armed forces.

The expert also recalls that the article on discrediting implies an administrative prejudice – criminal punishment occurs only if the perpetrator has already received an administrative punishment for discrediting the army within a year before. In addition, the expert notes, until this year, cases of defamation were not classified as serious – and for such crimes, a person, if he has not been previously convicted, there are no aggravating circumstances in the case and the article itself provides for an alternative sanction, cannot be sentenced to real imprisonment. It should be noted that over the past year, the courts considered 5442 protocols under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on discrediting the army. They issued one warning and fined 4440 people for 15.8 million rubles.

The largest number of sentences for public statements are still issued under Art. 280 of the Criminal Code (calls for extremist activity) – last year there were 276 of them, and 80 more people were convicted for extremism as an additional qualification. This is almost 10% more than it was in 2021. Even more significant – by almost a third (from 199 in 2021 to 274 in 2022), the number of those convicted for inciting or justifying terrorism has increased. The rapid growth of sentences under this article was observed in the previous two years, and it can be confidently predicted in the future, notes the director of the information and analytical center “Sova” (included in the register of non-profit organizations-foreign agents) Alexander Verkhovsky: according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2022 there were 40% more cases were opened than a year earlier. According to the expert, most of the statements that formed the basis of such cases do not look like systematic propaganda, but rather were born out of emotional outbursts. “Apparently, at some point it was decided to show zero tolerance for such speeches,” concludes Mr. Verkhovsky.

The number of sentences for inciting hatred or enmity (Part 1 of Article 282), which accounted for the lion’s share of cases of criminal prosecution for online activity until 2019 (418 convicted in 2018), is also growing, but not at the same pace: In 2022, 25 people were convicted against 20 in 2021. Recall that in 2019 Part 1 of Art. 282 was decriminalized: for the first offense committed, administrative liability is now provided. At first, this led to a sharp reduction in the number of convicts, but the number of those punished for inciting hatred under Art. 20.3.1 The Code of Administrative Offenses continues to grow: if in 2020 757 people were prosecuted under it, then in 2021 – already 936. This year, the Supreme Court combined statistics on those punished under this article with data on those prosecuted for displaying prohibited symbols , and the figure turned out to be impressive: 5270 violators were fined a total of 15.8 million rubles.

Sentences under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism after the surge in 2021 showed a slight decline: 27 convicted in 2021 against 18 in 2022.

Anastasia Kornya