A resident of a village in Sverdlovsk Region is to be tried on charges of rehabilitating Nazism

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court has received the case of 75-year-old Nikolai Dolgushin, a resident of the village of Tsementny, who is accused of spreading knowingly false information online about the actions of the USSR during the Second World War (para. ‘v,’ part 2, article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the outlet SotaVision.

According to law enforcement, on 26 September 2023 Dolgushin posted a comment on Odnoklassniki: “The Second World War was started by the dictator and murderer Stalin,” and on 24 February 2024 he wrote: “You’re lying, Russian pig, it was the murderer and dictator Stalin who declared war on peaceful Poland.” Both comments included videos featuring historical footage of the start of the Second World War and the occupation of Poland.

The man did not plead guilty and said that his account may have been hacked.

In May, the Nev’yansky City Court in Sverdlovsk Region fined Dolgushin 30,000 roubles (approximately US$330) under the article for “discrediting the army” (article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

The reason for this was a post on Odnoklassniki which, according to the court, contained statements aimed at undermining the authority of the Russian Armed Forces. Dolgushin had already been fined earlier under the same article—the court treated this as an aggravating circumstance. In court, Dolgushin stated that he only uses Odnoklassniki for finding friends and to write out recipes for traditional medicine, and that his account may have been hacked.