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In Chelyabinsk, a major city in the Urals, the case against 65-year-old activist Nadezhda Vertyakhovskaya from the “Stop-GOK” movement has been transferred to the Central District Court. She is accused of defamation against a judge (Part 1, Article 298.1 of the Russian Criminal Code). This was reported on the Telegram channel of lawyer Vladimir Kazantsev, who died in a penal colony over a year ago.

The case was opened back in September. The prosecution is based on two comments the activist made on the website “sudiyrossii.rf” about Anna Shmeleva, a judge of the Soviet District Court in Chelyabinsk, who sentenced Kazantsev.

Vertyakhovskaya posted the first comment in October 2022 after the verdict was delivered:

“Judge Shmeleva examined human rights defender Kazantsev’s criminal case over two years. Not a single session started on time. Delays lasted from an hour to an hour and a half. She could postpone a session and a lawyer flying in from Moscow came in vain. The verdict was also delivered late, the day after the scheduled date. She never once apologised for being late. She spoke so quietly that even the lawyers kept asking her to repeat herself. But when she reprimanded those present and Vladimir when he was consulting with the lawyers, she shouted loud enough for the whole room to hear. Almost all defence petitions were dismissed. All prosecution petitions were granted. In my opinion, she is a dishonest woman and got her robes undeservedly. No respect for those present. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO IMPARTIALITY. She did not allow audio recordings or photography of the hearings.”

The second comment was published by the activist in February 2025, two months after Kazantsev’s death in the penal colony:

“With her sentence, Judge Anna Shmeleva drove an honest man to his grave—the father of two children, human rights defender and environmental activist from the city of Chelyabinsk, Vladimir Nikolaevich Kazantsev. Vladimir was convicted on two fabricated charges, which was clear to all those present at his hearings. Vladimir died in Penal Colony No. 11 in the city of Kopeysk on 17 December 2024 of a heart attack. He was 52. He did not admit guilt. Without such an admission, he could not hope for parole. This was the first criminal case Judge Shmeleva heard after her appointment as judge.”

The Investigative Committee claims that these comments contained knowingly false information “defaming the professional honour and dignity of A. N. Shemeleva and undermining her business reputation.”

Case materials show that the case was launched after a report from Dmitry Vlasyuk, a 23-year-old student at the Polytechnic Institute of SUSU. At the end of March, he sent a screenshot of one of the comments and an online complaint to the Ministry of Internal Affairs:

“I saw insults and defamation against Judge Anna Nikolaevna Shmeleva of the Federal Court of the Soviet District, Chelyabinsk. I believe that public defamation of a judge amounts to extremism. I ask that the user ‘Nadezhda,’ who left the comment about Judge A. N. Shmeleva, be held legally accountable.”

The student said he had found the comment while researching material for his law classes (he is a fifth-year student specialising in ‘Wheeled and Tracked Vehicles’). “I was shocked by how harsh the message was—I even saw a certain threat toward the judge,” Vlasyuk later told law enforcement officials. He insisted the activist should have expressed her opinion “more delicately.”

  • In October 2022, Judge Shmeleva sentenced Kazantsev to four years in prison for fraud (Part 3, Article 159 and Part 4, Article 159 with the application of Article 30 of the Russian Criminal Code). The lawyer was accused of misleading his client Maksim Shtein and accepting 500,000 roubles (US$5,700) from him, supposedly to pass on to court staff as a bribe. He allegedly tried to persuade another victim, Dmitry Yataykin, to hand over 2.5 million roubles (US$28,400) for the same purpose. In court, Yataykin said that he did not consider himself a victim.
  • Chelyabinsk environmental activists view Kazantsev’s prosecution as politically motivated. The lawyer repeatedly helped them defend citizens' rights to a healthy environment in court, and after arrests at protest rallies. In addition, his public organisation “Ecological Consulting” sought court rulings declaring the construction of the Tominsky Mining and Processing Plant and a landfill in Poletaevo unlawful. He also cooperated with the environmental movement “Stop-GOK.”