Court overturns fine imposed on director of Yekaterinburg History Museum for discrediting military

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court granted the defense appeal of the director of the Yekaterinburg History Museum, Igor Pushkarev, who had previously been fined for discrediting the Russian military. This is reported by the publication It’s My City.

“The Sverdlovsk Regional Court dismissed the case against Igor Pushkarev due to the insignificance of the offense,” the court’s press service told reporters.

Pushkarev’s lawyer, Vladislav Idamzhapov, said details would become clear when he receives the decision in full.

Igor Pushkarev is a former Znak.com journalist, who stopped working after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. He was appointed director of the Yekaterinburg History Museum on December 14, 2022.

December 19 in the telegram channel “Prigozhin’s Cap” appeared a letter from PMC Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin to Yekaterinburg Mayor Alexei Orlov. In it, he demanded that Pushkarev be removed from his position as director of the museum. According to Prigozhin, the new director of the museum opposes the fighting in Ukraine and, in the course of his work as a journalist, allegedly received information “from active agents of the American and British intelligence services”.

Two days later, police came to see the director of the museum. Pushkarev was taken to the police station, an administrative protocol was drawn up against him and released. On January 25, the Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg imposed a fine of 30,000 rubles on Pushkarev. under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (“Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of armed forces to protect the interests of Russia and its citizens”).

The reason for the fine was a Facebook post (owned by Meta* Corporation). Pushkarev said he was not using his account and suggested his page had been hacked. The lawyer insisted that the report on Pushkarev was written in violation of the deadlines set by law.

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