In Tomsk, a pensioner was fined 1 million rubles for “fakes about the army”

The Tomsk Regional Court approved a fine of one million rubles to pensioner Marina Novikova in the case of so-called fakes about the Russian army. The investigation found Novikova’s posts on social networks, written with the words of her acquaintances from Ukraine, as “fakes”. Novikova asked to replace the fine with a prison term, since she does not have such an amount.

65-year-old Marina Novikova is a retired lawyer. She became one of the first accused in the article about “fakes”: the case against her was initiated in March 2022. According to the investigation, at the beginning of March she posted posts with stories of Ukrainians in her Telegram channel “Truth of Seversk City”, which had 170 subscribers at the time. In particular, among them were reports about what was happening in Energodar, Zaporozhye region.

Novikova’s trial took place at the end of April this year. The accusation called for three years in prison or a fine of 700,000 rubles. The court did not sentence the pensioner to imprisonment, but fined her one million. Novikova tried to challenge the decision in the regional court, but the court upheld it.

Maryna Novikova does not admit her guilt. She called the court’s decision “payment for the right to remain a person and a person.” “I did everything I could so that my fellow citizens would listen to me and make the right choice, standing on the side of good and the world,” Novikova said before passing the sentence.

• Russian courts recognize as fakes any information about the war that contradicts official reports. In particular, information on alleged war crimes, including attacks on civilian objects and civilian casualties.
• Residents of Russian regions are regularly tried for anti-war pickets, posts, reposts and even likes under anti-war publications.
• According to human rights activists, since the beginning of the war, more than 500 people have been prosecuted under criminal charges for their anti-war stance in Russia. More than 100 of them are in custody or under house arrest. Almost 50 people received real terms according to the court verdict.