Petersburg programmer arrested in absentia due to two VKontakte links
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The court in St. Petersburg arrested the programmer Nikolai Veprikov in absentia on the article about the so-called fakes about the Russian army. According to OVD-Info, two anti-war posts on the VKontakte social network became the reason for the initiation of a criminal case. Veprikov was also placed on the interstate wanted list.
According to the investigation, in 2022, Veprikov published two posts on social networks with links to YouTube videos about the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The accused admitted authorship of the posts, but refused to plead guilty to spreading “fakes”.
On June 23, Veprikov’s home was searched, after which he was detained and charged. The next day, the Nevsky District Court arrested him for two months. However, on July 27, the City Court of St. Petersburg decided to change the restraining order and release the programmer from pretrial detention. After that he left Russia.
According to Veprikov himself, he was acutely aware of what was happening in Ukraine. “I felt that my silence is a betrayal of my principles and values and a deal with conscience,” he said.
- Administrative and criminal articles about the so-called fakes about the Russian army were added by the State Duma to the Russian legislature shortly after its invasion of Ukraine. The courts recognize as discrediting the communication of any position on the war in Ukraine that contradicts Moscow’s official point of view.
- Russian courts have already handed down dozens of verdicts in cases of so-called “fakes about the army”, including in absentia – Alexander Nevzorov, Ilya Krasilshchik, Dmitry Glukhovsky. Politician Ilya Yashin received the maximum term – eight and a half years in prison. As a rule, the verdicts were handed down precisely in connection with statements about the murders in Buche or Mariupol. There are no acquittals based on this article.
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