Judge of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow Ksenia Panova sentenced poets Artem Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba to seven and five and a half years in a general regime colony, respectively, in the case of «Mayakov Readings». A SotaVision correspondent reports this from the courtroom.
The prosecutor's office asked both of them the same amount the day before. Kamardin and Shtovba were found guilty of calls for activities directed against the security of the state and inciting hatred or enmity (Part 3 of Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code and paragraph “c” of Part 2 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). The articles indicate the part and the point that provide for actions in the conditions of an organized group.
As reported by “Caution, News”, detentions of listeners who came to support the poets began in the courtroom. RusNews reports the arrest of its correspondent near the courthouse.
On the evening of September 26 last year, special forces came to the apartment where Kamardin, his then fiancee Alexandra Popova and their friend Alexander Menyukov were. Activists said that security forces beat them and, under threats, forced them to apologize on camera.
“It is unacceptable to judge art.” Speeches of the Mayakov Readings participants after they were asked to serve up to 7 years in prison
Initially, only a case was opened against Kamardin, Shtovba and the poet Nikolai Daineko for humiliating members of the “armed formations of the LPR and DPR.” All three were sent to pre-trial detention after their arrest.
In March, they were charged under the article on calls for anti-state activity that came into force in 2022. According to investigators, Kamardin read a verse with a recommendation not to take summonses or go to the military registration and enlistment office based on them. Shtovba and Daineko were brought in as accomplices. In May, the latter was sentenced to four years in prison.
A secret prosecution witness under the pseudonym Jackie, whose testimony was presented in court, said that he was present at the Mayakov Readings and heard Kamardin’s speech. “The Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics were touched upon, volunteers were touched upon, the poems said that it was necessary to rape the daughters of those volunteers who left,” he argued.
The witness also said that Shtovba did not read poetry on his own, but only shouted after Kamardin. He ignored questions about Nikolai Daineko.
< span class="mz-publish-context-cite__text_meta">Article“You have no idea what happened to me in just over a year.” Convicted poet Nikolai Daineko spoke in court in the Mayakov Readings case.