Nizhny Novgorod activist Alexei Podnebesny was fined 30,000 rubles for “discrediting” the Russian army (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) because he wrote the word “special operation” in quotation marks. He himself told SOTA about this.
The court considered that the quotation marks testify "to the ironic, opposite, disparaging meaning of the word."
In addition, the decision of the Avtozavodsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod, according to which he was fined, was copied from the decision of another judge in the case of his wife, Valeria Podnebesnaya. Earlier, she was also fined 30 thousand rubles, but in the Kanavinsky District Court. In the decree that the Celestial Empire received, they forgot to correct the female pronouns and left the wife's maiden name.
The Celestial Empire was fined back in June. The reason for this was his post on VKontakte that there was no hot water in some houses in Nizhny Novgorod. In it, the activist pointed out that the money that Russia spends on the war could be used to improve the situation with housing and communal services. A local resident reported to the police on the Celestial Empire.
As of mid-June, more than 2,100 Russians were accused of "discrediting" the Russian army (20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) during the war in Ukraine. They were issued fines totaling more than 25 million rubles. 52 criminal cases were opened for spreading "fake news" about the army.
