The First Western District Military Court in St. Petersburg imposed a fine of 350 thousand rubles on Komi resident Artem Maltsev in a criminal case for justifying terrorism, said Daria Lebedeva, head of the joint press service of city courts.
The reason for initiating a criminal case ( Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) against a 38-year-old resident of the village of Vizinga were comments on VKontakte, in which Maltsev, as Lebedeva writes, “expressed a desire to impale politicians.”
The court found that Maltsev left comments from April 9, 2020 to January 14, 2022, “being negatively disposed towards the activities of Russian government bodies.” The reason for his statements was “prohibitions due to coronavirus infection.”
The comments of a Komi resident began with the words “on the stake” and were addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, deputies Valentina Tereshkova and Irina Yarovaya and the head of Komi Vladimir Uiba. The examination found in these texts “a call to carry out terrorist activities by encroaching on the lives” of officials.
In court, Maltsev admitted guilt, but refused to testify, taking advantage of Article 51 of the Constitution, which allows you not to testify against yourself.
In January 2024, a resident of Komi was added to the Rosfinmonitoring list of “extremists and terrorists” with a note indicating that a criminal case had been opened against the man under an article on terrorism.