A man from St. Petersburg was sentenced to 5.5 years in the case of “fakes” about the Russian army

A court in St. Petersburg sentenced local resident Oleg Belousov to five and a half years in prison in the case of so-called fakes about the Russian army and calls for extremism. He was also banned from administering sites for four years. This is reported by Sever.Realii. State prosecution demanded nine and a half years in prison and a five-year ban on the administration of Internet resources.

The case against Belousov was initiated in the summer of 2022. The reason for this was his comments criticizing the Russian military in the VKontakte group called “Petersky diggers”, in which users discuss the search for ancient treasures. Later it became known about the second criminal case against Belousov – about calls to extremism. The investigation believes that he published a message with the text: “Putin is the number 1 traitor, looter of the country and war criminal. And who started these murders? Putler. The Russian-speaking cities of Kharkiv and Mariupol can be demolished?”.

The denunciation of Belousov was written by one of the members of the “St. Petersburg Diggers” community, Sergey Chmyhun. He explained his concession by saying that he wanted to make the author of the comments “realize” and “re-educate”.

In January 2023, Oleg Belousov was included in the list of extremists and terrorists of Rosfinmonitoring.

• The article about the so-called fakes about the Russian army was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Dozens of criminal sentences have already been handed down, including those with actual terms. Politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison. At the same time, courts often issue conditional sentences or impose fines.