The Kurgan City Court fined Artyom Khan, an employee of a rubber goods manufacturing plant, 30,000 rubles under an administrative charge of “discrediting” the army. Mediazona drew attention to the court ruling dated June 11.
The case stemmed from messages Khan allegedly posted in March 2023 in the Telegram chat “Divannye voyska”. One of them referred to the funeral of his colleague’s 31-year-old nephew, who had served in the Wagner PMC, and included a crude remark about members of that formation.
In the same exchange, he also wrote about an argument with a friend who, he said, was ready to go and “defend the motherland” if drafted, and mentioned a conversation with a former classmate working as a federal judge. In that message, Khan also wrote sarcastically about torture in prisons and about the man not watching YouTube.
In court, Khan said he had written the messages “in an inadequate state” because he was “very tired after a long shift at the factory,” and added that he “did not want to say anything bad about Wagner PMC fighters.”
The court nevertheless found those explanations unconvincing and held him liable under the article on “discrediting” the Russian army.