The court forbade the editorial board of “Sovremnnaya Kalmykia” to publish a newspaper

In Elista, the court forbade the editor-in-chief of “Sovremennaya Kalmykia” Valery Badmaev to publish a newspaper and publish materials on the Internet for two years, finding him guilty of repeatedly discrediting the Russian army. In addition, Badmaev was sentenced to a fine of 150,000 rubles, Kavkazsky Uzel reports.

The reason for initiating a criminal case against the editor-in-chief was the reposting of a video on his page in the VKontakte social network, in which a Ukrainian military officer talks about the use of phosphorus bombs by the Russian army during the storming of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.

At the same time, the examination found no signs of discrediting the army in the video recordings, and the prosecutor’s office twice refused to approve an indictment. Nevertheless, the case still went to court.

During the trial, the prosecution asked for three years in a penal colony for Badmaev.

• Valery Badmaev is a Kalmyk journalist and human rights defender, the initiator of the Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk people. In the summer of 2021, after such a congress, he was found guilty of repeatedly violating the order of holding rallies and sentenced to 40 hours of compulsory labor.