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The Akhtubinsky District Court of Astrakhan region has sentenced Vitaly Zhuravlev, in a third case of repeated “discrediting” (part 1, article 280.3 of the Criminal Code), to two years and eight months in a penal colony. A reader informed OVD-Info of this after Zhuravlev described the verdict in a letter from pretrial detention.

This sentence was combined with his previous punishment.

The court’s website also reported the new verdict against the man, which was passed on 16 December 2025. The press office clarified he has also been banned for three years from administering websites, forums, chats, and groups on social media.

The grounds for this case were a comment Zhuravlev made in a local public group.

‘[He] posted in the comments to a publication in the open group “Akhtubinsk Knows” on the social network VKontakte a negative comment in the form of a political joke about the Russian Armed Forces committing unlawful acts against their own citizens, whom the country’s leadership does not consider “ours.”’—stated the press release.

The court ruled that with this joke, he was undermining the “authority, image, and trust in the Russian Armed Forces.”

Zhuravlev pleaded guilty.

  • The man was first convicted in December 2024. At that time, he was sentenced to two years in a colony for negative comments about volunteers fighting in Ukraine, and for posting a certain image. Several months later, a second case for “discrediting” was initiated—again over his comments. In May the following year, Zhuravlev was sentenced to two and a half years in a colony (also combined with the remaining term on the first case).
  • Criminal prosecution became possible after Zhuravlev was fined under the administrative code for “discrediting” the army (part 1, article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). At the end of 2023, he was fined 30,000 rubles (about US$325) for posting a photograph of Putin with the caption: ‘Zа idiots. Without you, I wouldn’t exist.’