A resident of Kemerovo, a major city in Siberia, was given a two-year suspended sentence over a comment about the Immortal Regiment.

A woman from Kemerovo, a major city in Siberia, has been given a two-year suspended sentence on charges of “rehabilitating Nazism” online (Part 4, Article 354.1 of the Russian Criminal Code). RIA Novosti reported this.

She has also been banned from posting on the internet for two years.

It is likely that this concerns Yulia Tikhonova, whose sentence was handed down by the Kemerovo Regional Court on 12 August. The case was submitted to the court at the end of June and was considered over seven hearings.

The prosecution became public knowledge in July when the press service of the Investigative Committee for the Kemerovo Region announced a criminal case against the 42-year-old Kemerovo resident.

According to investigators, on 9 May last year, the woman left a comment said to “insult the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland” under a news post about more than 100,000 people participating in the “Immortal Regiment” in Kuzbass.

The “SOVA” research centre found that Tikhonova left a comment in the “Kemerovo” community on VKontakte under the username Sara Milaya, writing: “Why drag corpses around on sticks.”

The prosecutor’s office had stated that the Kemerovo resident did not admit guilt, but did not deny that she was the one who posted the comment.

In September 2024, a court in Kemerovo fined Tikhonova 30,000 roubles (about US$340) under the article on “discrediting the army” (Part 1, Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). The charges were drawn up because of comments left in other VKontakte groups: “Kuzbass Incident,” “Arguments and Facts/aif.ru,” “Typical Kuzbass” and “Gazeta.RU.”