The court returned the case filed against the Afghan veteran to the Ministry of the Sverdlovsk Region
The Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg returned the case of the head of the regional department of Afghan veterans, Viktor Babenko, to the Ministry of Public Security of the Sverdlovsk Region “due to incompleteness of the materials presented.”
The case was opened based on the fact that Babenko led a procession of Afghan veterans to the Black Tulip memorial on Airborne Forces Day, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Regional authorities did not approve the event, so Babenko faced a fine of 10 to 20 thousand or compulsory labor of up to 40 hours.
The court was forced to return the case to the ministry by the indignation of Ekaterinburg social activists.
“An excellent precedent. Remind me how many were detained and convicted from among the crowds of migrants running around Moscow in July under “Allahu Akbar”? It seems that the authorities of Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region have finally decided whose side they are on,” wrote blogger Sergei Kolyasnikov in his tg channel.
According to Russian State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Evgeny Kuyvashev (pictured), also intervened in the incident. He himself believes that the local ministry refused to approve the “Afghans” event for a purely formal reason.
“The reason is the special regime introduced in the region, although in the conditions of the Northern Military District, such actions, on the contrary, are more important than ever. We should not punish, but thank veterans for such actions. If only because, unlike these “would-be controllers,” today Russian paratroopers are at the forefront in the northwestern military zone, taking the brunt of the blow. Or are they closer not to the slogan “Glory to the Airborne Forces”, but to “Glory to Ukraine”? Yes, formally, from the point of view of the letter of the law, Babenko’s actions may have the elements of an administrative offense. But from the point of view of the spirit of the law, there is nothing to punish him for. If only because with their idiotic (there’s no other way to say it!) actions, Sverdlovsk officials left veterans no choice but to break the law,” Khinshtein wrote.
The deputy intends to keep the situation under control, because recently the Yekaterinburg courts have been making very strange decisions. Last week, one of them was limited to a fine of 7 thousand rubles for 56-year-old Alexander Neustroev. He mocked an 11-year-old boy who had a Z symbol on his hat. Moreover, the judge who made the strange decision was promoted.
In March, the Sverdlovsk regional court stopped proceedings against the director of the historical museum, Alexander Pushkarev, who was involved in discrediting the army.
And another court also imposed a symbolic fine of 260 thousand rubles on the same charge to the former mayor of the city, liberal Yevgeny Roizman. The amount for a businessman selling ancient icons is insignificant, but liberals demonstratively collected it through the Internet, turning crowdfunding into a protest.
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