Educator from Pyatigorsk fined for discrediting army after students' denunciation

A court has fined Elena Kabakova, an associate professor from the Pyatigorsk State University, under an article about discrediting the Russian Army for her pacifist statements in a conversation with students.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 4, 2022, liability for discrediting the Russian Armed Forces was introduced in Russia, after which residents of Southern Russia and Northern Caucasus began to be held accountable under this article. The maximum sanction provides for a fine of 50,000 roubles for citizens, but a repeated violation within a year threatens with criminal prosecution.

Elena Kabakova, who works at the Division of Information and Communication Technologies, Mathematics and Information Security at the Pyatigorsk State University, was fined under the article on discrediting militaries after talking with students who then wrote a denunciation about her pacifist views.

According to the "Kavkaz.Realii"* project that refers to the ruling, the court asserts that Ms Kabakova started a dialogue with a student during her math classes, condemning his stepfather's decision to go to Ukraine. Besides, she showed a photograph of her Ukrainian relatives to the student. At the trial, she refused to plead guilty and stated that there was no such dialogue and that at lectures with students she discussed only mathematics.

The denunciations against Kabakova were written by at least five students; four of them testified in court. Three of those interrogated in court have also noted that since the start of the academic year, Elena Kabakova "began replacing the Latin letters 'V' and 'Z' with other letters, thus expressing her attitude towards the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine." However, all the four stated that they had no conflicts with their teacher, who always helped them in understanding the training materials.