A former Shies activist has been fined in a criminal case over comments about the war in Ukraine.

The Korjazhma City Court in Arkhangelsk region has found former Shies activist Andrey Slotin guilty of inciting hatred and enmity (Part 1, Article 282 of the Criminal Code) and fined him 330,000 roubles (approximately US$3,600). This was reported by Activatica.

The sentence was delivered on 7 July. The prosecutor had asked the court to sentence the man to three years of compulsory labour.

According to investigators, in August 2024, Slotin posted comments in a local VKontakte group that contained negative statements about a “group of people united by professional affiliation—service personnel of the Russian army.”

One of the comments stated: “Your army does not exist! There are criminals who betrayed their oath and violated the criminal law of their homeland.”

The criminal case against Slotin came to light in February. On 7 February, his home was searched. At the time, pro-government public pages claimed that the man “calls our soldiers cowards, criminals, and traitors.”

In May 2024, Slotin was fined 10,000 roubles (about US$110) under an administrative offence of inciting hatred (Article 20.3.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences), again for a post about the war in Ukraine. The video that triggered the report said that Belgorod was being shelled by Russian troops, not Ukrainian.

In December 2023, the same court fined the activist a further 30,000 roubles (roughly US$330) under an administrative protocol for “discrediting the army” (Part 1, Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). The protocol was drawn up over a video by Gulagu.net founder Vladimir Osechkin, who shared audio recordings he described as “the testimony of one of the people involved in transporting Ukrainians from Azovstal to a concentration camp in the so-called ‘LNR/DNR.’” The court ruling stated that the video described the actions of the Russian army in Ukraine as criminal, predatory, and violent. Slotin did not admit guilt in any of the administrative cases.

Between 2018 and 2020, Slotin took part in environmental protests against the construction of a landfill site for waste from Moscow and the Moscow region in the south of Arkhangelsk region, a forested area in northwest Russia.