Blogger Sergey Veselov from Ivanovo Oblast was fined 350,000 rubles for anti-war videos, as reported by his lawyer, Oskar Cherdzhiyev, on June 27.
The court found 54-year-old Sergey Veselov from Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast, guilty of repeated discrediting of the army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) based on videos posted on his YouTube channel.
The prosecutor’s office dropped the charges associated with one of the five videos, as experts found no evidence of a crime. Initially, the prosecutor sought to sentence Veselov to 2.5 years in a settlement colony.
The blogger was also exempted from punishment in a vandalism case associated with the 'No to War' inscription on the Shuya administration building due to the expired statute of limitations. However, he was obliged to compensate the town hall 45,000 rubles for damages.
On May 17, Sergey Veselov was sentenced to 2 years in a penal colony in another case of repeated discrediting of the army. This stemmed from a video titled 'Don’t Confuse Germans with Hitlerites and Russians with Putinists.'
According to June reports, two additional criminal cases have been initiated against the blogger: one for state treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and another for confidential collaboration with a foreign state (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Investigators believe that he "established connections with Ukrainian handlers" and shared information about Russian military sites and transport infrastructure with them.
