The St. Petersburg City Court dismissed the case against the former teacher of the RANEPA and St. Petersburg State University of Economics Valentin Matveev on the "rehabilitation of Nazism" (part 1 of article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He was accused of Holocaust denial. The case was closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, at the request of Matveev's defense. The prosecution did not object.
Matveev called the Holocaust a "myth" during his lecture during the webinar "Preparing lessons in memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the soldiers of the Red Army, the liberators of Auschwitz" in January 2021. During it, the professor told the audience for an hour and a half that the Holocaust was invented by the Zionists. He called fictitious information about the burning of Jews in ovens in concentration camps, as well as data on six million dead.
Immediately after the lecture, the professor was fired from the RANEPA. As a result of public outcry, a criminal case was opened against him. It has been under review since February 2022.
At the end of October, a new case of incitement to terrorism and extremism, financing of extremist activities and the rehabilitation of Nazism was brought against the politician Alexei Navalny, who is already serving a sentence. The Investigative Committee claims that he committed all these crimes without leaving his cell. He faces up to 30 years in prison.