The court did not arrest the pediatrician accused of fakes about the army

The court in Moscow refused to investigate the petition for the arrest of 67-year-old pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova, against whom the Investigative Committee had previously opened a criminal case for so-called fakes about the army. Buyanova was ordered to prohibit certain actions as a preventive measure and was released in the courtroom.

The doctor was detained on the evening of February 2 after one of the patients, who came to her in the Moscow clinic number 140 for an appointment with her son, said that the doctor allegedly mocked her husband, who died in the war in Ukraine, and said that he was a “legitimate target ” for Ukraine, and that “generally, Russia is to blame”. The patient Anastasiya Akinshina recorded a video with a request to bring Buyanova to justice under the article about the discrediting of the army, and also wrote a statement to the law enforcement authorities, indicating, among other things, that the doctor graduated from an institute in Lviv (this was in Soviet times, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union ).

Buyanova denied the allegations, saying that she did not say the phrases in which she was accused. Buyanova’s lawyer Oscar Cherdzhiev told the Astra publication that Akinshina’s 7-year-old son was not present during her conversation with the doctor (Akinshina insisted that the doctor allegedly insulted the child’s father in his presence), and there is no evidence that the conversation went exactly as the patient claims , – moreover, even if it was so, it cannot be considered public distribution of “fakes” and, therefore, cannot be prosecuted by law.

On Friday, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered to open a criminal case against the doctor. According to Russian legislation, a case can be brought under the article on discrediting only if the accused has previously been criminally prosecuted for “discrediting”. Probably, that is why the case was initiated under the second article – about “fakes” about the army.

In the evening of February 2, Buyanova’s home was searched, and the lawyer was not allowed into the apartment. At the same time, the doctor claims that even on February 1, the police took her phone in order to read her personal correspondence. On the same day, she was fired from the clinic, as Astra claims, “one day and without reason.” It is confirmed that the chief physician was also dismissed.

• Reports about the war in Ukraine, which do not coincide with the version of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, are recognized by Russian courts as fakes about the army. The article on punishment for so-called fakes was introduced into the Criminal Code shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
• According to “OVD-Info” estimates, at least 830 people have been prosecuted for their anti-war stance in Russia, including at least 250 against them for the article about fakes about the Russian army.