The Shcherbinsky District Court of Moscow fined 70-year-old Olga Slegina 40,000 rubles for “discrediting” the army (Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) because she called Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky a “handsome young man.” According to Memorial, the court session lasted no more than five minutes.
The case was considered in the absence of Slegina, who could not come due to illness. The judge refused to reschedule the hearing, despite certificates from doctors, stating that the defendant was not sick enough and "is not in intensive care."
The conversation, because of which the pensioner was tried, took place in a sanatorium in Nalchik, where she rested in December. Muscovite Slegina got into a conversation with a woman from Odessa: they discussed how to pronounce the Ukrainian word “palyanitsa” correctly. A waitress joined the conversation, saying that Zelensky was a "freak". Slegina replied that “Zelensky is a handsome young man with a good sense of humor, everyone used to laugh at his jokes,” and also asked: “Ukrainians in your republic don’t shout like we do in Moscow:“ Glory to Ukraine ”?”
A few days later, the police came to the pensioner. After the interrogation, she signed a document, which, according to Memorial, she could not read because she was without glasses and also suffers from cataracts. According to her, because of the stress, she did not understand what was happening, and she wanted "it all to end quickly."
According to Slegina, her words were changed in the protocol. There, in particular, it was said that she shouted “Glory to Ukraine” and “expressed her dissatisfaction with the current situation in the country.” In addition, the police interpreted the phrase that she was “outraged by the fact that those who have money [those] go abroad” as follows: “Slegina expressed her support for Ukraine, believing that Ukrainians glorify their country, and Russian soldiers are fleeing the war.”
