Krasnodar resident Olesya Ovchinnikova, who was detained by the Russian Guard after an anti-war conversation in a restaurant with her husband, left the country. She informed the editors of Kavkaz.Realii about this.
“Yes, I left the country. What can I say? Everything is obvious,” she said. Ovchinnikova did not want to comment on the reasons for emigration.
She also stressed that she was not going to apply for political refugee status, but did not plan to return to Russia. At the moment she is in Armenia, where she went with her daughter.
On February 16, the Leninsky Court of Krasnodar found Ovchinnikova guilty of discrediting the Russian army because of an anti-war conversation in a restaurant. She was fined 40 thousand rubles. Her lawyer Aleksey Avanesyan, who represents her interests , told Kavkaz.Realii that he intends to appeal the court’s decision.
On the night of January 30, in the Krasnodar restaurant Na Drovakh, the Ovchinnikovs and their girlfriend were discussing the war in Ukraine when another visitor aggressively demanded that they stop talking. After that, employees of the National Guard were called to the restaurant, they threw the spouses to the floor and handcuffed them. Olesya Ovchinnikova was also interviewed by the criminal investigation department and the FSB, they were interested in her attitude to the war and the presence of relatives in Ukraine. Earlier, the court appointed Olesya’s wife 15 days of administrative arrest for petty hooliganism, she was fined 1,000 rubles. Now the court has added another penalty. The very story of the harsh detention of a Krasnodar woman and her husband caused a resonance in Russian and foreign media.
In the regions of southern Russia and the North Caucasus, persecution continues against opponents of the invasion of the territory of Ukraine. Sanctions of a new administrative article introduced in March 2022 for “discrediting” the Russian army provide for a fine of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles; if the offense is repeated within a year, criminal liability is provided. The Kavkaz.Realii website monitors such cases.
- The Central District Court of Sochi issued a verdict due to the status in the messenger – it was written “Glory to Ukraine” in Korean. For this, the court fined a 38-year-old resident of the city two thousand rubles, taking into account the presence of minor children in her. She was found guilty under the article on “demonstration of Nazi symbols.”
- A journalist from Krasnodar, Evgeny Bukhantsev, with his wife and two children, emigrated from Russia to the United States after the threat of initiating a criminal case for “discrediting” the Russian army. Previously, he was twice detained at anti-war pickets.
- The Supreme Court of North Ossetia denied the complaint to the lawyer of local journalist Ruslan Totrov – in mid-November he was fined 50 thousand rubles for publishing a commentary for the New York Times. The court saw this as discrediting the army.
- A police officer , a deacon and a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, a school teacher and university teacher , an employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service and representatives of other professions were brought to administrative responsibility for “discrediting” the army in the southern regions .
Source : Кавказ Реалии