The Leninsky District Court of St. Petersburg fined Marina Balueva, a former co-chair of the independent school workers’ union “Uchitel” and an English teacher, 15,000 rubles. She was found guilty under Article 20.3.3 Part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses on “discrediting” the army, according to a Mediazona correspondent in the courtroom.
The ruling was issued by judge Elena Samsonova. The administrative case was based on a post Balueva published on her VKontakte page on September 21, 2014.
“The war in Ukraine is a crime of Putin’s regime.”
According to the outlet, this was already the second attempt by law enforcement to prosecute Balueva over the same post. The court had previously returned the first protocol to its authors without considering it.
The defense argued that the post could not be treated as “discrediting” the army because no such administrative article existed in 2014. Lawyer Sergey Podolsky also told the court that Balueva’s pension was lower than the minimum fine set by this article.
Balueva herself did not admit guilt. In court, she said that in 2014 the Russian army was not taking part in combat operations.
“If someone claims that Russia was at war, that person would fall under the article on fake military information.”