The 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced 36-year-old animal rights activist from Ryazan Nikita Chernichkin to six years in a general regime colony. He was found guilty under articles about public calls for terrorism on the Internet (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code), rehabilitation of Nazism on the Internet (Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code) and “fake news” about the Russian army (Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). Mediazona was informed about this by the press service. The man’s case was considered at mobile hearings in the Ryazan Garrison Military Court.
Chernichkin fully admitted his guilt and cooperated with the investigation, the press service noted. As an additional punishment, the animal rights activist was banned from administering websites for three years.
The telegram channel “Caution, News” was the first to report on July 20, 2023, that a criminal case had been opened against Chernichkin for the rehabilitation of Nazism. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the man changed his name on Odnoklassniki to “Nikita No to War” and “began actively commenting on the agenda on social networks,” the post says. Currently, there is only one post on the man’s page, in which he urges people not to abandon animals at their dachas.
Referring to the accusation, “Caution, News” wrote that in OctoberChernichkin left an “offensive comment” about the Russian soldier Nikita Samoilov, who died in Gostomel, which was discovered by employees of the “E” center. After the initiation of the case, according to the publication, the animal rights activist was released on his own recognizance.
The Astra Telegram channel wrote that the reason for the accusation of “insulting the memory of defenders of the Fatherland” was Chernichkin’s comment about the deceased military man on VKontakte — Now his page on this social network has been deleted.
The publication NeMoskva Says called the man an animal volunteer and public inspector in the field of animal treatment.
In 2021, the stray animal control service group wrote about Chernichkin: “With his own strength, he put together “houses” for his family. for dogs that needed shelter. The booths were made with great effort and care. With his own efforts, he filled and made a path for the animals before the “overexposure”. Nikita constantly helps the institution halfway and actively helps in other matters, also being a volunteer. Such people should be noted; helping our smaller friends is work that requires great expenses.”
At the end of April 2024, the man was on the list of Rosfinmonitoring — there was an asterisk next to his name; this means that a case has been opened against him under a terrorist article.
On May 20, the Investigative Committee for the Ryazan Region reported, without naming Chernichkin’s name, that the case against him had been transferred to court. OVD-Info drew attention to this. The department's message already listed all three articles that the Ryazan resident was charged with.
According to the indictment, the man “on one of the social networks” wrote comments in which they found “signs of incitement to commit actions against senior officials of the Russian Federation and the Ryazan region,” and he also talked about the crimes of the Russian military in Ukraine. In another comment, the report says, he insulted “the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland.”
The department did not specify what preventive measure was chosen for the man at that time. The press services of the Moscow and Ryazan courts were unable to report this either.
Mediazona discovered that even before the initiation of a criminal case, in June 2023, the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Ryazan fined Nikita Chernichkin 30 thousand rubles under the protocol on “discrediting” the Russian army (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code).
According to the decree posted on the court’s website, on June 4 last year, a Ryazan resident struck on the asphalt in front of music schoolthe inscription “Freedom for Navalny” — on this day it was the politician’s birthday, and rallies were held throughout the country in his support, and he also “drew the letter Z (which is the symbol of the SVO “For Victory”) and aligned with the sign «=» ; to the fascist swastika he applied, “Right-turning four-ray swastika (symbolism).”
He painted the same drawing with an equal sign between the symbol of the war in Ukraine and the Nazi swastika on the asphalt in front of one of the residential buildings in Ryazan. The document says that Chernichkin admitted his guilt in the administrative case and repented; he explained that in this way he expressed “dissatisfaction with the conduct of a special military operation.”