A political émigré from Sterlitamak has been declared wanted in connection with a case of repeated “discrediting” of the army.

On 2 May, Yevgeny Shepelev from Sterlitamak—a city in Bashkortostan—was declared wanted in connection with a criminal case of repeated “discrediting” of the army (Part 1, Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by his lawyer to OVD-Info.

The lawyer was handed a ruling on bringing Shepelev in as an accused person and was notified that the investigative actions had been completed.

The criminal case for ‘discrediting’ the army was opened in April 2024. The reason was seven images posted on VKontakte and Telegram. In August 2023, Shepelev had already been fined under a similar administrative article (Part 1, Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

In March 2024, Shepelev was sentenced to five months of corrective labour in a case regarding alleged “military fakes” (Part 1, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code); in June, the sentence was confirmed. The basis for the prosecution was a post about crimes committed by the Russian army in Izium. According to the investigation, Shepelev published this on his VKontakte page in September 2022. In October 2024, it became known that he had left Russia for France.