Three Quarters of 100 Russians Charged with Not Respecting Powerful were Criticizing Putin, Agora Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 31 – When the law imposing administrative punishments on those who show a lack of respect for the powers that be was adopted exactly a year ago, many assumed that it was first and foremost about punishing those who criticized in any way Vladimir Putin online. So it has turned out to be, according to Agora lawyer Stanislaw Seleznev.

            According to his count, there have been 100 such cases brought that have led to 51 sentences involving fines totaling 1.6 million rubles (20,000 US dollars). Of these, three out of four concerned instances where individuals or groups had criticized the Kremlin leader and they were assessed 75 percent of the fines (ehorussia.com/new/node/20529).

            Most cases originated outside of Moscow, Seleznev says. Among the 44 regions were there have been such charges, the most were in Arkhangelsk oblast with eight, Kemerovo Oblast with seven, and Vologda and Saratov Oblasts with six each. Fifty-five of the cases involved posts on VKontakte, with much smaller numbers from Odnoklassniki, Facebook, and Instagram.

            The law, which provides no clear definition of what constitutes a display of a lack of respect was also applied to people who commented on other lower-ranking officials. In some cases, the Agora lawyer said, the courts did not even specify whom those charged had offended but fined them anyway.