The Elbrus District Court of Kabardino-Balkaria imposed two fines of 15 thousand rubles each on 61-year-old Tyrnyauz resident Vladimir Kryachko under protocols of “discrediting” the army. This was reported by the human rights Center Memorial.
According to Kryachko, who works as a taxi driver, on the evening of April 25, two police officers came to his home and said that several passengers had written statements against him because of conversations about the war. After that, they read two protocols with identical contents to the man. Kryachko refused to sign the documents and told the security forces on camera that he “didn’t do anything, he’s happy with the authorities.”
Kryachko was found guilty under both protocols on June 14. He was given fines below the minimum amount taking into account retirement age and disability of the second group.
The court came to the conclusion that on March 18, Kryachko, “while driving privately in his car, publicly discredited the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” in the presence of two sisters, the Teberdiev passengers. According to one of them, Kryachko said that the Russian military is killing innocent people in Ukraine and making money from it.
On March 19, Kryachko, according to the court, told the same thing to passengers Savateeva and Uzdenova. The taxi driver did not admit guilt, said that he “has nothing against Russia,” and on March 19 he had a day off.
As Memorial writes, in June 2023, a protocol was already drawn up against Kryachko to “discredit” the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) — the reason for this, the security forces also cited the taxi driver’s conversations about the war in Ukraine with local residents and tourists. In August of the same year, the court terminated the proceedings in this administrative case due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.