The Elista City Court of Kalmykia fined the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Modern Kalmykia” Valery Badmaev 150 thousand rubles. Lawyer Semyon Ateev told the Caucasian Knot about this.
The 72-year-old journalist was found guilty in a criminal case for “discrediting” the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code). In addition to the fine, the court also banned him from publishing a newspaper and publishing texts and videos on the Internet for two years.
The reason for the prosecution, which began at the end of 2022, was a video about the shelling of Mariupol, which Badmaev reposted on VKontakte. There, in particular, it was said that phosphorus bombs were used during the siege of the Azovstal plant. Badmaev’s defense noted that the video did not say which side used them.
The newspaper “Modern Kalmykia” is published in Elista and comes out once a month; it published critical materials about the authorities of the republic. Roskomnadzor included them in its secret list of publications disloyal to the authorities, which became known due to a leak in the department.
In March 2014, police seized a seven-thousandth copy of the newspaper, stored in the apartment of the chairman of the Kalmyk branch of the Yabloko party, because of an article on Crimea by a Ukrainian scientist on the front page. Badmaev was regularly persecuted due to his participation in pickets and rallies, including the holding of the 2021 Congress of the Oirat-Kalmyk people.