A resident of Bryansk region has been sentenced to eight months in an open prison colony for a comment made in a messenger app.

A court in Bryansk Region sentenced a local resident to eight months in a penal settlement for a comment about the war in Ukraine, as well as about symbols and days of military glory of Russia and the USSR. The regional Investigative Committee reported this.

The man was found guilty under the article on the rehabilitation of Nazism, specifically for desecrating symbols of Russia’s military glory and distributing information expressing disrespect towards society regarding days of Russia’s military glory and dates from the Second World War (part 4 of article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). He was also banned from administering websites on the internet for three years. The site “Bryanskaya Guberniya” describes the convicted person as being originally from Omsk, a large city in Siberia.

The Investigative Committee wrote: “The preliminary and court investigation established that on 28 January 2025, the man posted, under his own name, a text message in a messenger group online, expressing a negative attitude towards the special military operation, as well as towards the symbols and days of Russia’s military glory, and commemorative dates from the Second World War.”

Supposedly, this refers to Dmitriy Kalashnikov, a native of Omsk profiled here, whose case is being heard in the Bryansk Regional Court. The latest hearing in this case took place on 2 September, but it is not clear from the court’s online record whether a sentence has been passed. The case was submitted to court in mid-July.