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The Moscow City Court, on appeal, has overturned the sentence of former municipal deputy Elena Filina in the case concerning the dissemination of military “fake news” (subparagraph “d” of Part 2, Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and has sent the case back for retrial. OVD-Info noted this decision on the Moscow City Court website, issued on 19 June 2025.
The reason for overturning the verdict was a violation of the Criminal Procedure Code by the judge in the first instance: she did not schedule a preliminary hearing, although it is required when the trial is being held in the defendant’s absence.
On 8 July, Filina’s case was returned to the Kuntsevsky District Court in Moscow. The preliminary hearing is set for 15 July.
In March 2025, the court sentenced the former deputy in absentia to eight years in a general-regime penal colony. She was found guilty of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army out of hatred, due to a 2022 post: “Bucha and Irpin are true fascism and Nazism, a crime against humanity committed by Russian soldiers on Putin’s orders.”
The prosecution argued that statements from the Ministry of Defence dated 24 February and 3 April 2022 refuted this post, and that the deputy intended “to provoke a wide public reaction and social rejection.” The defence pointed out that Filina’s post appeared before the Ministry of Defence’s press release about the events in Bucha and Irpin, so at that time, the deputy was unaware of the official position of the Russian authorities.
Filina herself believes the prosecution to be politically motivated and sees it as an infringement of her right to freedom of expression.
The deputy openly opposed the invasion of Ukraine from the earliest days of the war. On 24 February 2022, she was detained at an anti-war rally in Moscow.
In August 2022, a criminal case was opened against her. Soon after, Filina, who had left the country, was declared wanted and arrested in absentia. In summer 2024, law enforcement officers came to search the Moscow flat of her 25-year-old son. They broke the door open, seized equipment, and questioned Filina’s son as a witness in her case.