Dmitry Ivanov, the author of the Protest MGU telegram channel, was sentenced to 8.5 years in a penal colony in the case of “fakes” about the Russian army, RBC was told in court.
In addition, the court deprived him of the right to engage in activities related to the administration of sites for four years.
23-year-old Dmitry Ivanov is a former student of the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University, one of the founders of the telegram channel Protestny MSU. He is accused of spreading fakes about the Russian army based on political or ideological hatred .207.3 of the Criminal Code). The prosecution requested nine years in prison for him.
The reason for initiating the case was reports in the “Protest MGU” about war crimes allegedly committed by Russian troops, killings of civilians and the destruction of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. According to the prosecution, with these posts, the activist “undermined the authority of the Russian army and aroused a feeling of anxiety and anxiety in an unlimited circle of people.”
The messages published on the Telegram channel contradicted the official position of the Russian authorities on the conflict in Ukraine. The prosecution attached statements by official representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia to the case file. In this regard, the defense tried to summon Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya and Defense Ministry representative Igor Konashenkov to the trial.
“All the accusations against me look absurd, and the article on which I am judged, in principle, should not exist. It is easy and pleasant for me to take a consistent position and tell the truth – I have always adhered to this principle both in public activities and in personal matters. The investigation, trying to accuse me of spreading fakes, constructed one big fake. Literally the entire indictment – from the first to the last word – is contrary to reality. I subscribe to every word that I wrote a year ago,” Dmitry Ivanov said in the last word, which was published on March 1 by Protest Moscow State University.