A Tuapse resident was fined for assessing losses at the front.

A court in Tuapse fined local resident Andrei Kuzmenko under the article on "discrediting the army" for saying that Russians "aren't killed enough."

Criminal liability for discrediting the armed forces was introduced on March 4, 2022. Since then, residents of Russia, including the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts, have been prosecuted under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. It provides for a fine of 30,000 to 100,000 rubles, and repeat violations within a year result in criminal prosecution.

Mediazona* brought Andrei Kuzmenko's administrative case under the article on discrediting the army (20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) to the attention of Andrei Kuzmenko.

The Tuapse resident's prosecution stemmed from a remark he made in a local store. A report against the man was filed on March 12, and the court heard it the following day.

While in the store, the man uttered the phrase "not enough of your Russians are being killed in the war," according to a ruling on the court's website. The context of the statement is not provided in the document, but the police and the court clearly deemed it "aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces."

Kuzmenko admitted his guilt in court and expressed remorse, which the court considered a mitigating circumstance. The Tuapse resident was fined 35,000 rubles.

"Caucasian Knot" has written about other cases of residents of southern Russia being prosecuted for "discrediting the army." Thus, Ilya Gushchin, a resident of Georgievsk, was fined 50,000 rubles in April for a pro-Ukrainian slogan uttered near a church. In court, he stated that he was "joking" and "didn't mean anything bad."

Gairitin Sumanakov, a pensioner from Kamyshin, was fined twice for discrediting Russian military personnel for likes on Odnoklassniki. Also in early April, it became known that a court had remanded in custody a 30-year-old resident of Stavropol Krai, charged with disseminating false information about the Russian armed forces due to comments on a messenger.

Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code was introduced on March 4, 2022, after the start of the Russian operation in Ukraine. This article of the Russian Criminal Code contradicts the Constitution of Russia, as well as basic principles of law, human rights activists stated. "The wording of the article does not allow us to determine in advance which statements are lawful and which are prohibited. A citizen cannot know in advance which of his statements, what information may be considered false in this context," they emphasized.

At the end of 2025, a court in Cherkessk sentenced lawyer and activist Ramazan Mkhtse in absentia to eight years in prison, finding him guilty of disseminating false information about the Russian military motivated by political hatred.

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