A magistrate of court district No. 374 in Moscow’s Tagansky district fined political analyst Alexey Chesnakov 4,000 rubles for mentioning Meta in a publication without stating that the company has been designated extremist in Russia. The ruling was published on the magistrates’ court portal and was first noted by Mediazona.
Chesnakov was found guilty under Article 13.15 Part 2 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses, which covers abuse of mass media freedom. He was held liable in his capacity as editor-in-chief of the outlet Aktualnye Kommentarii.
The case stemmed from an article titled “Dead Zone” published on the outlet’s website. Its author is listed as political analyst Gleb Kuznetsov. The text, which discussed social media moderation and the use of artificial intelligence among other issues, mentioned Meta, the company associated with Facebook and Instagram.
Meta was designated an extremist organization in Russia in March 2022. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the ban was based on claims that the corporation ignored requests from Russian authorities and allegedly enabled aggressive rhetoric against Russians.
Chesnakov is also known as the director of the Center for Political Conjuncture. He previously worked with United Russia and served in the presidential administration.
In 2014, the Security Service of Ukraine published recordings of phone conversations involving Russian representatives and leaders of the self-proclaimed DPR. It was alleged that Chesnakov’s voice appeared on some of those recordings, and he was linked to pro-Russian separatists. According to the SBU, he discussed money with Alexander Borodai and asked him to arrange an interview with Igor Strelkov (Girkin) in which Strelkov would express “the greatest respect” for Vladimir Putin. Chesnakov denied that the voice on the recording was his.