Deputy from Karelia accused of “discrediting” the army for calling to spend money on schools instead of war

Against the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia from the party “Yabloko” Emilia Slabunova, an administrative case was opened on “discrediting” the army for calling to spend money on schools, and not on the war in Ukraine.

“In the last days of the past year, I received a “gift” under the Christmas tree – a protocol on the “discrediting” of the Russian army (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). As most often happens in modern times – by denunciation, ”Slabunova said in her Telegram channel.

According to her, the denunciation was written by a member of the Karelia parliament from United Russia after her speech at a meeting of the committees of the regional Legislative Assembly, which discussed the problems of overloading schools and providing educational institutions with psychologists.

The author of the denunciation to the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the prosecutor’s office is Leonid Liminchuk, clarifies the telegram channel From Karelia with freedom with a link to a copy of the United Russia statement. In it, he cites the words of Slabunova, in which he saw the “discredit” of the army.

“It is important that schools are built, and for the taxes that their parents earn, and they go to the budget, so that these taxes are spent not on military operations there, special, not special and all sorts of different ones, but on the construction of schools so that children do not have to study in two shifts, and in some regions in three,” Slabunova allegedly said at the meeting.

Liminchuk also considered “discrediting” the repost in Slabunova’s telegram channel of the Yabloko message, which criticized the decision to announce mobilization in Russia.

The persecution of Russians for anti-war statements and positions began immediately after February 24, 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine. According to OVD-Info and Nestka, from February 24 to December last year, more than 300 criminal cases were opened in Russia for anti-war positions and actions.

The most frequent “crimes” in this category were: spreading “fakes” about the army (207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), vandalism (214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and discrimination against the military (280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In total, 19,443 people were detained for demonstrating an anti-war position, and law enforcement agencies initiated administrative cases against more than five thousand people.