The court canceled the fine to the director of the Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg for discrediting the army

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court satisfied the complaint of the defense of the director of the Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg, Igor Pushkarev, who was fined for discrediting the army (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). A fine of 30 thousand rubles. he was appointed for an anti-war post on Facebook (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned).

The judge decided to cancel the decision of the Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg “in view of the insignificance of the committed act.” Lawyer Vladislav Idamzhapov told TASS that he did not expect such a decision. “Proceedings on the case have been terminated, no signs of public danger have been identified, we will wait for the motivational part,” he said.

Igor Pushkarev is a historian and former journalist for Znak.com. He became director of the Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg on December 14, 2022. His appointment caused resonance among a number of public organizations calling themselves “patriots”. The public movement “Call of the People” asked the head of the TFR Alexander Bastrykin to check the validity of the appointment of Mr. Pushkarev, as well as to check his statements regarding the fighters of the PMC “Wagner” for discrediting the army (Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, wrote a letter to the mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov, demanding that Igor Pushkarev be fired. On December 21, 2022, Igor Pushkarev was taken to the police station on Frunze Street, where a protocol was drawn up under Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, December 25, the court fined his.

Laura Keffer