A resident of Stavropol, a major city in southern Russia, has been sentenced to compulsory labour in a case concerning the alleged discrediting of the army.

The Promyshlenny District Court in Stavropol, a major city in southern Russia, has sentenced local resident Yegor Filippov to one and a half years of compulsory labour in a case concerning repeated allegations of discrediting the army (Part 1, Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code). This information comes from the published verdict, highlighted by OVD-Info.

He was also banned for two years from “engaging in activities related to the administration of chats, groups, communities or other forms of user interaction and communication” online. Although this ban is supposed to take effect after his compulsory labour sentence, the court has extended it to apply during the main punishment as well.

The verdict was issued on 20 May.

Since at least February, Filippov had been held in a pre-trial detention centre. On the day the verdict was announced, he was released from custody in the courtroom.

The defendant fully admitted his guilt and requested a special procedure for the case—in other words, without examining the evidence.

The criminal prosecution stemmed from a message Filippov posted in a chat with 7,000 users. The content of the message has been redacted in the published verdict.

The linguistics experts stated that the message contained “information about hostile (violent) actions (deprivation of life) committed by Russian military personnel (the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) on the territory of Ukraine against its residents.” The experts also identified psychological and linguistic indicators of persuasion “regarding the negative nature of the objectives for the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” in Ukraine.

At the time this message was posted, Filippov had already faced an administrative offence for discrediting the army (Part 1, Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). On 1 January 2024, the same court fined him 35,000 roubles (US$380) for several anti-war comments—their content was also redacted.