In Velikiye Luki, a writer has been fined for stating that Crimea is not Russia

The City Court of Velikiye Luki in Pskov Oblast has fined writer Gennady Moiseenko 30,000 rubles (approximately US$335) for stating that Crimea is not part of Russia. The news was reported by the regional courts' joint press office.

The court found Moiseenko guilty of calling for violations of the territorial integrity of Russia (Article 20.3.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences). According to the case file on the court’s website, the verdict was issued back on 8 July.

In December 2024, at a local history conference held at a library in Velikiye Luki, a city in northwest Russia, the writer 'publicly asserted that a territory of the Russian Federation—namely the Republic of Crimea—belongs to another state', according to the press service.

Afterwards, the FSB passed information about what happened to the prosecutor’s office for review.

Moiseenko, 65, is a member of the Russian Union of Writers, a poet, prose writer and musician. In the 2000s, he worked as a correspondent for the magazine Classic Rock. He lives and works in Velikiye Luki and in recent years has occasionally given talks at the city’s central library. An announcement for one of his jubilee evenings noted that Moiseenko has Ukrainian roots, although he was born in Velikiye Luki:

'It’s simply that all his relatives come from a small town with the sweet name “Izyum,” located in Kharkiv Oblast. All summer, little Gennady would spend his time there—so for a long time, he simply couldn’t imagine “what a Russian summer was like.”'