Since March 2022, Almost 7,000 Russians have been Fined for ‘Discrediting the Army,’ But More than 200 have Fought Back with Some Success

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 19 – Since Putin began his expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022, nearly 7,000 Russians have been fined for “discrediting the Russian army,” a charge that is so elastic that the authorities have applied it widely in the hopes of repressing any signs of dissent against the Kremlin’s policies.

            But what is striking is that more than 200 Russians who have been fined on this account have fought back in the courts and even achieved some success, according to an investigation carried out by Vyorstka media and OVD-Info (verstka.media/bolshe-200-rossiyan-dobilis-peresmotra-shtrafov-za-diskreditaciyu-armii).

            Of these, 119 have successfully challenged the imposition of these finds in appellate courts, 89 have succeeded in getting the appeals courts to return their cases for rehearing to courts of first instance, and 47 have had the amount of the fines originally imposed significantly reduced, the investigation found. 

            On the one hand, those who have achieved such success are only a microscopic portion of those who have been fined. But on the other, they likely constitute a large portion of those who have chosen to appeal and thus show the way that others could follow with at least the possibility of achieving some relief – and thus limiting the Kremlin’s ability to use this repressive policy.