Dagestani blogger links case on discrediting army with his posts

The reason for initiating a criminal case against Arslan Mirzaev, a blogger from Dagestan, on discrediting Russian militaries, was in his publications criticizing the Kremlin's policy in Ukraine, the blogger himself has suggested.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 4, 2022, liability for discrediting the Russian Armed Forces was introduced, after which residents of Russia began to be persecuted under this article. It provides for a maximum administrative penalty for citizens in the form of a fine of up to 50,000 roubles, but a repeated violation committed within a year entails already criminal prosecution.

The blogger, Arslan Mirzaev, also known under the pseudonym of Ali Charinsky, has informed that he had been living in Ukraine for several years; therefore he received no documents about the initiation of a criminal case against him in Russia. "From the beginning [of the military operation], I told the truth about what was really going on here; therefore, they opened a case against me," he said.

According to investigators, on the instructions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the blogger disseminated "deliberately false information", the human rights project "OVD-Info"* has reported.

Mirzaev has specified that the case of discrediting the army was already the second criminal case against him. "The first one was for 'justifying terrorism'," he explained, adding that it was initiated in connection with his publication in defence of Crimean Tatars.

"In total, they can put me in jail for more than 10 years; and in the Caucasus they promised to kill me if they reach me," Mr Mirzaev has concluded.

The blogger has added that "all the time in Ukraine" he blogged in social networks, where he published information that "contradicted the Kremlin's propaganda."