Lavrov, Konashenkova and Nebenzya will be summoned to court in the case of fakes

The Tymyryazevsky District Court of Moscow, which is hearing a criminal case about fakes about the Russian army, initiated against Moscow State University student Dmitry Ivanov, agreed to summon the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov, the head of the press service and information department of the Ministry of Defense Igor Konashenkov and the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to participate in the process Federation in the UN Security Council Vitaly Nebenzu. Thus, the court granted Ivanov’s defense request.

The defendant’s lawyer, Maria Eismont, asked to issue summonses for Lavrov, Konashenkov, and Nebenza, since all three “are prosecution witnesses and can be questioned in court.” In addition, according to Eismont, “Ivanov is accused of a serious crime based on the comparison of his texts with the statements of Lavrov and Konashenkov.”

Having approved the petition, the judge of the Tymyryazevsky district court postponed the hearing until February 8. At the same time, the term of detention of Dmitry Ivanov was extended until May 3.

• Dmitry Ivanov is a student of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University and one of the creators of the Telegram channel “Protestny MSU”. For his civil position, he was repeatedly fined and administratively arrested. On June 2 last year, Ivanov was detained and sent to a pre-trial detention center on a criminal charge of spreading knowingly false information about the actions of the Russian army. The investigation found fake reports about the killing of civilians and the destruction of the civil infrastructure of Ukraine. According to the charge, Ivanov faces up to 10 years in prison.
• An article on the spread of fakes about the Russian army was added to the Criminal Code of Russia shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Russian authorities call any information about the war that contradicts the official reports of the Ministry of Defense a fake. Violators of the article face long prison terms – up to 15 years of imprisonment. At the moment, hundreds of similar criminal cases have already been initiated. According to human rights activists, in this way military censorship has actually been introduced in Russia.