A resident of Pskov was fined 450,000 for “anti-Putin” reposts

In Pskov, the 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced microbiologist Elena Kuzmina to a fine of 450,000 rubles for reposts criticizing the authorities, in which the investigation found calls for “violent and destructive actions against President Putin.” This is reported by the Sever.Realii correspondent.

She can pay the fine in installments over five years.

In December 2020, Kuzmina was released to the FSB as a witness in the case of Pskov tourist Alexei Shibanov, who was accused of an article about public calls for extremist activity, which officers found in 17 of his VKontakte posts. Kuzmina was in Shibanov’s “friends” and liked his posts. In March 2022, he was found guilty and fined 300,000 rubles.

In October 2021, Kuzmina became a witness in an identical case against the musician from Dno, Boris Yakovlev, FSB officers found signs of extremism in the texts of his poems and songs. The musician was convicted in absentia while he was waiting for political asylum in Finland.

Elena Kuzmina was requalified from a witness to a suspect in mid-2022. On July 1, her apartment was searched, security forces seized a camera and two phones, and later she was entered into the register of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring. A criminal case under articles on the justification of terrorism and public appeals to extremism was initiated for reposts of Boris Yakovlev’s publications.

At the end of September 2022, Kuzmina drew up two protocols on the so-called discrediting of the army for publications about the war in Ukraine in VKontakte. She was fined 30,000 rubles for one of them. The second protocol did not reach the court due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.