The student was left for the ninth year – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

Timiryazevsky court of the capital sentenced a former student of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov, Dmitry Ivanov, administrator of the Protest Moscow State University Telegram channel, to eight years and six months in prison for a series of publications about Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. The court found him guilty of publicly disseminating knowingly false information about the armed forces of the Russian Federation “motivated by political hatred” (clause “e”, part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). A member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC), Eva Merkacheva, states that “words” in Russia are now being judged as murders.

Last April, a 23-year-old fourth-year student of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University Dmitry Ivanov was detained. The police charged him with “repeated violation of the rules for organizing a rally” (part 8 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses), the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow arrested the student for ten days. The “repeated” violation of the Code of Administrative Offenses was associated with his protest activity.

Dmitry Ivanov ran a Telegram channel, where he talked about the military actions of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, covered the trials of oppositionists and talked about rallies and pickets.

He also regularly took part in actions himself, for which he was brought to administrative responsibility several times.

Dmitry Ivanov was arrested at the Sakharovo temporary detention center for foreign citizens. On May 8, at the exit from the center, the student was again detained by the police and again imputed to him under Part 8 of Art. 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses – for reposting from the Telegram channel of supporters of Alexei Navalny and “organizing an anti-war rally.” The court arrested the student for 25 days, due to which Mr. Ivanov missed the final exams with the defense of his diploma and was subsequently expelled.

June 2 at the exit from the student’s special detention center detained already employees of the Investigative Committee of Russia, accusing them of “public dissemination of knowingly false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”, committed “motivated by political hatred or enmity.” On June 3, the Presnensky Court of Moscow sent the student to a pre-trial detention center.

The prosecution charged Dmitry Ivanov with 11 posts on the Protestny MGU channel about military operations on the territory of Ukraine.

Most of them are reposts of messages published, among other things, in the channels of Alexei Navalny, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, and oppositionist Maxim Katz (included in the register of foreign agents). “By his criminal actions, Ivanov D.A. misled an unlimited circle of people regarding the legitimacy of the actions of the RF Armed Forces during a special military operation,” Novaya Gazeta quotes the materials of the case. with the above statement, a feeling of anxiety, fear, anxiety and insecurity on the part of the state.”

In the psychological and linguistic expertise prepared by the prosecution, the messages from the Protest MGU channel were compared with the statements of the official representative of the General Staff of the Russian Federation, Igor Konashenkov. Experts have established “contradictions” between the messages in Mr. Ivanov’s channel and the official information of the Ministry of Defense.

At the stage of preliminary hearings, lawyer Maria Eismont, defending Mr. Ivanov, asked Judge Daria Pugacheva to stop the proceedings so that the defense could file a complaint with the Constitutional Court against Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code.

According to a number of lawyers and human rights activists, the essence of this article contradicts the Basic Law. It should be noted that an article in the Criminal Code was introduced in March 2022 to, as the authors emphasized, to prevent the dissemination of false information about the course of the SVO. Both in the case of Mr. Ivanov and in other similar cases, the request for verification of the Constitutional Court was not granted.

At the request of the defense, linguist Igor Zharkov and psychologist Veronika Konstantinova conducted their own examination of the statements that became the basis for the persecution of Mr. Ivanov. The experts concluded that at the time of the publication of messages in the channel, the information was not “knowingly false” for the accused, since official representatives of the Ministry of Defense did not comment on these events.

Also on the defense side were mathematician and associate professor of Moscow State University Mikhail Lobanov, as well as Bishop of the Apostolic Orthodox Church Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko. The first one told the court about the active work of the defendant in the life of the university. He added that the main witness for the prosecution, the former deputy dean of the Faculty of Fundamental Physical and Chemical Engineering (FFFHI) of Moscow State University, Lyudmila Grigorieva, was fired after her sharp reaction to posts in the Protestny MSU channel. According to Mr. Lobanov, she took revenge on Ivanov for this. The bishop, who is involved in helping refugees from Mariupol, explained to the court that he heard from his wards almost the same information that Dmitry Ivanov reprinted in the channel.

The guilt of Dmitry Ivanov has not been proven, Maria Eismont told the court. She emphasized that the “falsity” of information should first be proved, and only then their “public dissemination” should be imputed, the last circumstance alone is not enough to establish guilt. Prosecutor Yulia Pravosud retorted that the defense was doing everything “to discredit the investigation.” In the debate she demanded for Dmitry Ivanov nine years in prison.

“All the accusations against me look absurd,” said Dmitry Ivanov, who was given the last word by the court.

“The investigation, trying to accuse me of spreading fakes, constructed one big fake. Literally the entire indictment, from the first to the last word, contradicts reality,” the defendant said.

On March 7, Judge Daria Pugacheva announced the verdict: “To recognize Ivanov Dmitry Aleksandrovich as guilty and to impose a sentence of eight and a half years in prison in a penal colony.”

“Any information about events in Ukraine that does not correspond to the press releases of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and official reports is not only declared deliberately false, but declared criminal. And the terms for her are comparable to the terms for the murder, ”Maria Eismont commented on the verdict to Kommersant.

HRC member Eva Merkacheva agrees with the defense: “Today I read two murder cases at once. In one case, the court sentenced to eight years, in the other – to seven. How did we come to the conclusion that less is awarded for murder than for words? There is nothing more valuable than human life, and these sentences devalue it.”

In Moscow st. 207.3 of the Criminal Code has already been applied at least 38 times. The appeal reminded that to real imprisonment under Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code, former municipal deputies have already been sentenced Alexey Gorinov (got seven and a half years) and Ilya Yashin, recognized at the stage of investigation as a foreign agent (eight and a half years). In the case of Mr. Gorinov, spoke out working group of the United Nations (whose decisions the COP decided to implement), demanding his “immediate release”.

Maria Starikova