The court sent for compulsory treatment a retired colonel of the Russian army, Mikhail Shendakov, who sharply criticized the authorities on his YouTube channel. According to Sota, a psychological and psychiatric examination concluded that the man was obsessed with "persistent delusional ideas."
Previously, Shendakov was convicted under several criminal articles. In February 2021, he was found guilty of inciting hatred or enmity and publicly calling for extremism on the Internet because of the video “Surkov promised war to Donbass!”. The court considered that Shendakov was calling on viewers to violence against the FSB officers, and sentenced him to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment.
In November of the same year, the ex-colonel was given another sentence (three years probation) under the article on inciting hatred – this time against the National Guard. In one of his broadcasts, Shendakov told an anecdote about a surgeon and a member of the National Guard, after which the blogger, by his own admission, " got carried away ", and he turned to doctors with a call to "cut these creatures' eggs."
The National Guard comes to his senses from anesthesia on the operating table. The doctor says to him: "Well, everything is fine, fighter, I cut off your balls." “How are the eggs, doctor? I told you I had appendicitis. – "So I told you that I'm going home, and not to the rally."
During 2022, Shendakov was twice brought to administrative responsibility for "discrediting" the army. In January 2023, the former colonel was detained as part of a new case of incitement to extremism. Subsequently, he was sent to a pre-trial detention center, and the conditional sentences were changed to real ones.
