The Pervomaisky District Court of Kirov found the composer and former conductor of the Vyatka Philharmonic Prokhor Protasov guilty in the case of “fakes” about the Russian army (point “e” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). It is reported by “Mediazona”.
Earlier, the state prosecution asked to appoint the composer nine years in prison, as well as to ban him from administering and creating websites for four years.
In my country blocked
present tense
The reason for initiating a case against Protasov was his posts on VKontakte about the war in Ukraine. These publications included links to the materials of the Present Time, Meduza, as well as videos of the opposition leader Maxim Katz.
In August 2022, the composer’s page on VKontakte was blocked, and a month later the house where Protasov’s parents were was searched. After that, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put him on the federal wanted list.
Protasov himself now lives in Canada, where he is studying for a doctorate. In Russia, the composer is known, including as the author of the anthem of the city of Kirov.
Since March 2022, in Russia, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, 187 criminal cases have been opened about “fakes” against the Russian army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to Pavel Chikov, the head of the human rights group “Agora”, 149 people are involved in these cases, and cases have been initiated against some of the defendants in several episodes.
The human rights activist stressed that the largest number of criminal cases on military “fakes” were opened in Moscow (42), St. Petersburg (10) and the Omsk region (9).
Of all 187 cases, 23 were “committed outside the Russian Federation.” For example, in relation to the Bulgarian investigative journalist of the Bellingcat project Hristo Grozev, whom the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs put on the international wanted list in connection with this.
