Skip to main content

Russian Anti-War Activist Dmitry Skurikhin Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for "Discrediting" the Military

Russian anti-war activist and entrepreneur Dmitry Skurikhin (Дмитрий Š”ŠŗŃƒŃ€ŠøŃ…ŠøŠ½) has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for "discrediting" the Russian military after he displayed a poster with the words "Sorry, Ukraine" ("ŠŸŃ€Š¾ŃŃ‚Šø, Украина").

A court in Lomonosov, an inner-city municipality within St. Petersburg, found him guilty of "repeatedly discrediting the army." The poster was ordered to be burned. The prosecution had demanded that Skurikhin be sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.

Russian authorities opened two separate criminal cases against Skurikhin.


Skurikhin and his wife in front of the Lomonosov District Court on July 28. Screenshot from Sotavision YouTube channel 


The first case dates back to 2022, after the enterpreneur painted the faƧade of his store with anti-war slogans and the names of Ukrainian cities that were attacked by the Russian army. 

Investigators searched his house for 11 hours: they broke the door, smashed a window, seized phones and computers, including those belonging to his children. 



A second case against Skurikhin was filed in February this year after he knelt down holding a poster "Sorry, Ukraine" on the anniversary of the Russian invasion. Photos of his protest went viral on social media in Russia.

On February 24 he was arrested. In April, he was released and placed under house arrest. In May, a District Court in St. Petersburg fined him 45,000 rubles in an administrative case for "discrediting" the army because of an anti-war video he posted on Telegram.

Skurikhin's anti-war activism began as far back as 2014. After Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the region of Crimea, he wrote on his store front in huge letters: "Peace to Ukraine, freedom to Russia" ("ŠœŠøŃ€ Украине, свобоГу России").

In June 2023, the anti-war slogans on the faƧade of his store were painted over by unknown persons. Footage from his surveillance camera showed eight people arriving at the building at night: five painted over the faƧade, while the other three filmed what was happening.

In 2022 the Russian government introduced legislation against "discrediting" the military. 

Article 280.3 states that "public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation" are punishable by fines and prison terms of up to five years.

Article 207.3 states that "public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation" is punishable by fines and prison sentences of up to 15 years


•••

If you found this article interesting, you may like some of my books



Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/c4n5v92k30no

https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/02/26/russian-activist-arrested-charged-with-discrediting-the-army-after-a-one-man-anti-war-protest

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/how-russia-is-applying-new-laws-stifle-dissent-ukraine-2022-08-26/

https://youtu.be/ZhPinrEPSZM

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Window Trick of Las Vegas Hotels

When I lived in Hong Kong I often passed by a residential apartment complex commonly known as the " monster building ".  " Interior of the Yick Cheong Building November 2016 " by  Nick-D  is licensed under  CC BY-SA 4.0 . _____

It's The Culture War, Stupid! - How The Far Right Uses Religious and Ethnic Identity to Mobilize Voters

" Impeach Trump Rally " by  Geoff Livingston  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

How Dictatorial Regimes Use Money To Infiltrate The Media in Democratic Countries

United States Capitol (Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0) During the Cold War, the Soviet Union sought to undermine the United States and its allies through a variety of active measures aimed at influencing and manipulating public opinion. Although the Cold War - understood in the narrow sense of the confrontation between a capitalist and a communist economic system - has ended, the struggle between different political ideologies and ways of life has not. As the Soviet-style centrally planned economic system was abandoned by nearly every country, the ideological confrontation shifted. States like Russia and China have embraced a mixed market economy, yet they have retained an authoritarian political system.  While capitalism conquered the authoritarian states of the former communist bloc, authoritarianism appears to be creeping into the polity of the US-led "free world". The Republican Party in the United States, for instance, has turned to authoritarianism . Accord