Detentions, trials and pressure over anti-war statements and criticism of the war in Ukraine: Human rights news, court updates & analysis | 152 related articles

05.02.2025

10:34

The Saratov District Court has fined Sergey Gabov 30,000 rubles (approximately US$330) over a conversation on the Kislovodsk–Kirov train. He was found guilty under the article on “discrediting the army” (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code).

According to the court decision, on 31 January Gabov publicly spoke out against the “special military operation” in a passenger carriage and said he wanted to help Ukraine. It is noted that Gabov admitted guilt and expressed remorse.

31.01.2025

10:19

Moscow

The Tverskoy District Court in Moscow has fined streamer Alexey Gubanov, known as JesusAVGN, 50,000 rubles (approximately US$550) after he was charged with “discrediting the army” (Article 20.3.3 part 1 of the Administrative Offences Code), reports SOTAvision.

The charge was based on a half-hour video published on the “Hesus Stream” channel titled “Hesus. The advance of the AFU in Kursk region. Putin’s panic. The situation on the frontline.” The court did not specify which statements the police considered to be “forming a negative attitude towards the ‘special military operation.’” The judge said this was due to the use of obscene language.

Gubanov’s lawyer Alena Savelyeva pointed out that the recording had not been published by the streamer himself or on his official channels, but rather by an unidentified person. She also noted that the streamer was expressing concern for conscript soldiers being sent to the frontline, rather than criticising the goals of the ‘special military operation’ itself.

Savelyeva demanded the case be closed, citing the statute of limitations, violations in the protocol, and the lack of the main piece of evidence in the case materials—the disk with the video, which was the basis for the protocol and referenced by the linguistic expert in their report.

Gubanov is one of the most popular Russian-language streamers on Twitch, and his YouTube channel has almost 1.4 million subscribers. In recent years he has been living in the United States. In October 2024, the streamer said that FSB officers had visited his parents, who live in Novokuznetsk, a major city in Siberia. Security forces suspected him of donating to the Ukrainian army, specifically the “Azov” unit. He denied this.

28.01.2025

17:21

The Nagatinsky District Court of Moscow has fined bard songwriter Andrei Buyanov more than 300,000 roubles (about US$3,250) on ten counts of “discrediting” the Russian army (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). This was reported by “Ostorozhno, novosti.”

Information about the hearings in Andrei Buyanov’s cases is also published on the court’s official website. All ten hearings took place on 27 January, with the same judge presiding at each of them.

According to the court’s published rulings, Buyanov posted anti-war statements, his own songs, and poems on his VKontakte page. In one of his songs, he wrote:

“It turned out my friends welcomed hell… And you can write on VKontakte about your yearning for the church, And you can piously post a family selfie, Craft wise songs, like the serpent king, But February forever showed us—WHO IS WHO.”

In another post, for which Buyanov was fined, he mentioned the memorial service for Alexei Navalny and Christianity in the context of the war with Ukraine: “I admire the people who were not afraid and came to the memorial and funeral of NAME,—the court quotes Buyanov’s text.—A symbolic video—against the backdrop of the church people are chanting what should have been heard in churches these two years: ‘No to war! ’ But it isn’t heard. The voice of God, expelled from the churches…”

Andrei Buyanov attended all the hearings. According to the rulings, he admitted his guilt in committing the administrative offence.

24.01.2025

18:36

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

A resident of Nizhny Novgorod named Maksim has been charged with “discrediting the army” (under Article 20.3.3, part 1, of the Code of Administrative Offences) for an image of helmets with the letter Z, accompanied by the caption: “They fought for God-knows-what.” He told OVD-Info about this himself.

The image was posted on the Strava app, which allows people to track their location and physical condition during sports training.

Maksim told OVD-Info that he has since left the country due to fears of criminal prosecution.

Previously, on 16 January, a court fined him two thousand roubles (approx. US$22) over another anti-war cartoon published on Strava. This one showed a swastika with the caption “never again” and the letter Z with the word “again.” The court found Maksim guilty of displaying Nazi symbols (under Article 20.3, part 1, of the Code of Administrative Offences). After the first administrative case, this resident of Nizhny Novgorod was fired from his job the same day.

18.01.2025

15:41

Lipetsk Oblast

Leonid Volobuev, a student from Lipetsk, has received at least four fines of 15,000 rubles each (about US$165) for the phrase “NO TO WAR” painted on walls and pavements. In total, Volobuev was brought to administrative responsibility seven times in September 2024 under the article on “discrediting the Russian army” (Part 1, Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences), according to information on the website of the Sovetsky District Court in Lipetsk, a city in central Russia, but only four out of the seven rulings have been published.

Each case concerns the use of black spray paint to write “NO TO WAR”: the young man made two of the inscriptions on 15 August, and another two on 27 August. One slogan was painted on asphalt, while the other three appeared on the walls of technical facilities.

The rulings state that on 28 August, Volobuev had his shorts, sweatshirt, sandals, and an empty spray paint can confiscated. The court ruled that his clothing should be returned, but the can should be destroyed.

The young man pleaded guilty. The court set fines below the minimum prescribed by law, taking into account his age (18), the fact that he is in his first year at university as a fee-paying student, positive references from his place of study, and his state of health. Volobuev’s lawyer also asked the court to consider his “previous place of residence, where he and his family were constantly under shelling.” The documents do not state where this was.

17.01.2025

16:55

The Petrozavodsk City Court has fined Karelia-based journalist Denis Pogrebnoy 30 thousand rubles (approximately US$330) for anti-war posts and poems on the internet. This was reported by Novaya Gazeta and the Telegram channel From Karelia with freedom.

The journalist was found guilty under the administrative offence of “discrediting the Russian army” (Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences). Ten posts published on VKontakte in 2023 and 2024 were cited in the case, including a post in support of his colleague Natalya Sevets-Yermolina, who at that time had been declared a “foreign agent.”

“More and more of my friends are becoming foreign agents! I’m proud of Yermolina! After all (let me clarify right away), this status doesn’t mean ‘traitor,’ as some dyed-in-the-wool patriots might think, but rather a sensible and free person,” Pogrebnoy’s post was quoted by From Karelia with freedom as saying.

The journalist himself did not attend the court hearing, as he had left the country. He was represented in court by his lawyer, Natalia Chernova, who read out Pogrebnoy’s position.

“My aim is to inform my fellow citizens about what is going on around them, whether during working hours or in my free time. Doing so is an essential part of democracy and freedom of speech, as guaranteed by the Russian Constitution,” Pogrebnoy’s statement was quoted by Novaya Gazeta.

His counsel supported the journalist and added that he has the right to express his personal opinion, and that criticism of the authorities is not the same as discrediting the (Russian) army.

15.01.2025

12:53

A protocol has been drawn up against Sergey Kustov, chief editor of the pro-government media outlet “IvanovoNEWS | BARS,” for “discrediting the Russian army” (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences) due to a typo in the surname of a soldier, reports 7×7.

In November, the outlet published the names of 17 soldiers from Ivanovo region who went missing during the war in Ukraine. According to Kustov, the police officer considered a mistake in one of the surnames to be “spreading unchecked information as factual.”

“Don’t you want to look into the eyes of the mothers who for a year now haven’t known where their sons are? Don’t you want to explain to a son or daughter when they will be able to receive their father’s body, so they can bury him with dignity? … Of course, it’s much easier to slap me with a 300,000-ruble (about US$3,300) fine to silence everyone who’s ready to give a voice to the families of those missing in action…,” wrote the chief editor.

“IvanovoNEWS | BARS” openly supports the war. Earlier, Kustov said the police officer simply wants to “settle scores” because the outlet demands punishment for another senior Interior Ministry employee, “who blatantly lies and whose actions show signs of a criminal offence.”

14.01.2025

16:08

Volgograd Oblast

Vladislav Emelyanenko, a resident of Volgograd—a major city on the Volga River in southern Russia—has served 15 days of administrative detention over a patch with the Ukrainian flag. He himself reported this to OVD-Info.

On 9 December, officers detained him in the street after noticing the patch on his clothing. A search of Emelyanenko’s home was conducted during which two phones, a laptop and bank cards were seized. Afterwards, Emelyanenko was arrested under the article concerning the public display of banned symbols (Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences).

On Emelyanenko’s phone, officers found two videos: one showed some antifascist graffiti, while another was of a church wall with the inscription “God is dead, fascism is resurrected.” Emelyanenko, the Volgograd resident, was informed that he is a witness in a criminal case about offending the feelings of religious believers (Article 148 of the Criminal Code).

13.01.2025

20:55

Voronezh Oblast

The Garden of Eden exhibition by the artist Pavel Brat from Voronezh was cancelled after a denunciation. It was open for only one day. This was reported by 7×7—Horizontal Russia.

The exhibition was held at the Station creative cluster. As Brat explained, after the opening, on the morning of 10 January, representatives of the venue called him and said that the security service had checked the artist’s social media and “decided to close the exhibition.”

“Discrediting… Well, no one will send me any official letter, who am I here. I arrived in time for the opening hours of the exhibition, but security didn’t even let me inside, and then they informed me that I would only be allowed in for dismantling. <…> I hoped that my favourite strategy of personal invitations to my exhibitions, together with a single public announcement a month before the start, would help avoid attracting unnecessary attention from our local Aunt ‘Korobkova’ <…>, but alas,” Brat wrote on Instagram.

In December 2022, one day after opening, Brat’s Maps of Meaning exhibition in the House of Architects in Voronezh, a major city in southwestern Russia, was cancelled following a complaint over his anti-war stance. As Brat recounted, someone reported to the deputy head of the regional government, Konstantin Kuznetsov, who is responsible for architecture, that “the artist is an extremist and spoke out about the war in March and February.”

17:06

Krasnodar Krai

Inna Tishkina, a resident of Krasnodar—a major city in southern Russia—was fined four times in one day for anti-war posts on X (formerly Twitter) after being reported by a local deputy. This was reported by '7×7—Horizontal Russia'.

The Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar, on 26 December 2024, reviewed four protocols against Tishkina. Three of these were under the article on “discrediting the army” (Art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences), while another was for “insulting the authorities” (Art. 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences). For each administrative case, the woman was fined 30,000 roubles (approx. US$330), with the total fine amounting to 120,000 roubles (approx. US$1,325).

Tishkina was detained on 26 December following a report by Sergei Klimov, a deputy from the village of Severskaya representing the “New People” party. The security services-linked Telegram channel “NKB SMERSH Kubani” published a video showing the woman apologising after her detention. She was also forced to sing the Russian national anthem.

Klimov published screenshots of Tishkina’s posts on X. In one of them, the woman wrote about the letter Z on a passer-by’s backpack: When will these scumbags finally draw it on their foreheads. After her detention, the Krasnodar resident closed her account on the social network.

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Detentions, trials and pressure over anti-war statements and criticism of the war in Ukraine