The Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnoyarsk fined activist Natalia Podolyak 100,000 rubles under the article on repeated 'discrediting' of the army, reports 'OVD-Info'*.
The criminal case was initiated in January of this year, prompted by 17 comments on 'VKontakte' written from February to August 2023. After a linguistic examination ordered by the investigation, five comments remained in the case, in one Podolyak stated she did not understand why the war started, and in another she joked under a picture with Sergey Shoigu and Ramzan Kadyrov, thereby 'undermining their authority as participants of the SVO', she also spoke negatively about the fighters of the 'Akhmat' unit.
In December 2022, the woman was already fined 30,000 rubles under a similar administrative article due to an anti-war comment, which gave the police the opportunity to initiate a criminal case.
In court, the woman confirmed she wrote the comments but did not plead guilty. 'Did my opinion in the comments cause the country's GDP to collapse? Or maybe the standard of living of Russians sharply decreased? Or did the world's second army read my comments on VK, get upset, and go home?' she addressed the court in her final word. The court in response found her guilty and fined her 100,000 rubles.
In May 2023, Podolyak was dismissed from the Siberian Institute of Business, Management, and Psychology, where she headed the sports club. 'I have no disciplinary penalties, by the way, only thanks and encouragements, but what does it matter when it comes to dissent,' she commented on her dismissal order.
In 2020, Natalia Podolyak was arrested for 10 days after she left a comment about the first detentions related to violations of restrictive measures introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic. The court found her guilty under the article on inciting hatred, citing an examination stating that 'cops' is a social group.
In 2019, the woman was fined 150,000 rubles under the article on 'violence against a police officer' due to participation in a rally of Alexei Navalny's supporters**. She was also ordered to pay 20,000 rubles to police officer Dmitry Danilov.
* Recognized as a 'foreign agent' in Russia.
** Included in the list of 'terrorists and extremists'.
Photo: NSG24