A resident of Vladivostok who opposed the war will be sent to a mental hospital

Vladivostok resident Sergei Tokhteev, whom the investigation accused of “discrediting the army”, is sent to a psychiatric hospital by court order. He himself told the Sibir.Realia correspondent about this and sent a copy of the decision to the editors. Within 30 days, the activist will have to stay in a hospital for a “psychiatric examination”.

The investigator needed to place Tokhteev in the Ussuriysk medical institution. In total, five criminal cases were opened against the activist for repeated “discrediting of the armed forces of Russia”, which were later combined into one proceeding. The reason was his anti-war posts on the VKontakte social network.

“There were not five posts, but more, but they chose five and opened a case of repeated discrediting for each of them. I took the texts mainly from the telegram, including the statements of journalists Alexander Nevzorov and Denis Kazansky,” Tokhteev told Sibir.Realii.

Now he is under house arrest and under a restraining order. He is defended by an appointed lawyer. According to the court’s decision, the activist should be taken to the Ussuriysk psychiatric hospital on July 3.

The police first came to Tokhteev’s home in February 2023. Then the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized all the equipment from him, and also, as it is claimed, used physical force. As the activist notes, since that time he has not had access to his pages in social networks, since all his gadgets and SIM card, which were linked to his accounts, were confiscated from him.

The first administrative case of “discrediting” was filed against Tokhteev in May 2022, also because of his post in VKontakte. Then he was fined 30 thousand rubles. The activist did not pay the fine.

• The administrative article on the discrediting of the army was adopted eight days after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It provides fines from 30 to 50 thousand rubles for public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the armed forces of Russia in a “special military operation” (as the Russian authorities call the war in Ukraine). Criminal liability is provided for repeated violations. She also appeared in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.