The court sent a Muscovite to a pre-trial detention center for three crosses on the asphalt

The court sent a Muscovite to a pre-trial detention center for three crosses on the asphalt

The Basmanny Court of Moscow sent 25-year-old Konstantin Kochanov to the SIZO, against whom a criminal case was opened because of three red crosses drawn on the asphalt. The investigation connected the crosses with the war in Ukraine.

According to OVD-info, the trial on the measure of suppression was held on May 18, however, it became known about it only today, when information about it appeared in the Basmanny court card.

Kochanov is charged with an article about hooliganism motivated by political hatred. The investigation believes that he painted three crosses on the asphalt – two near the houses on Bolshoi Kozlovsky Lane and one on Nizhnaya Krasnoselskaya Street. In this way, he allegedly expressed “his disagreement with the ongoing special military operation” (as the Russian authorities call the war in Ukraine) and “took public actions that created a real threat of undermining the security of the state, and created a threat of causing harm to the lives and health of citizens.” Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels published claims that the symbols that appeared the night before May 9 could be targets for drone attacks. At the same time, the “War with Fakes” channel, close to the Ministry of Defense of Russia, claimed that we are talking about geodetic marks, “which make it possible to carry out a topographical survey of the area with the help of special devices.” “There is no practical benefit from using signs for military purposes,” the channel assured.

Kochanov himself did not explain his actions. There were no attacks on May 9 in Moscow.

The Russian authorities use different articles of the criminal code to prosecute people who oppose the war in Ukraine. The article about political hooliganism, however, is used less often than articles about so-called fakes about the army or repeated discrediting.



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