In the Komi Republic, a case was opened against environmental activist Alexey Semenov for insulting a government official (Article 319 of the Criminal Code) after he dumped trash on the official’s desk. The OVD-Info project drew attention to the post in the telegram channel “Support for Environmental Defenders”.
According to the resolution to initiate a criminal case, which is quoted by the telegram channel, Semenov entered the office of the head of the local State Housing Inspectorate (GZHI) and spilled the contents of a garbage bag on the desktop, thereby “publicly and deliberately insulting the head of the GZHI” .
“The trash bag contained dirty toilet paper, an empty plastic bottle and other waste. Semenov’s actions allegedly humiliated the honor and dignity of the boss, and also “undermined the authority of state authorities,” the authors of the publication added.
The environmental activist accompanied his actions with the words that “Officials must comply with Putin’s law.” As explained in “Support for Environmental Defenders”, we are talking about Article 17.1 of the Federal Law “On Production and Consumption Waste”.
Semyonov called his action a reaction to the refusal of the head of the GZHI to conduct an audit of the actions of a regional operator who had been issuing invoices with a debt for three years for an unused container site near a children's playground. Last December, an environmental activist saw a man leave “a whole trunk of garbage bags” on this site. He brought one of them to the official’s office.