[Automated translation with minimal edits from Russian article.]
A court fined a resident of Belgorod [in Russia] 30,000 roubles for comments about Vladimir Putin and the Russian military in a Telegram chat, Pepel reports. 47-year-old Grigory B. called the president a “bald dk" and his supporters "Putin’s dk suckers”.
When asked about his attitude towards the participants in the war against Ukraine, the Belgorod resident said that they were “victims of Putin’s regime”, and then added that he also considered them “fers and dheads”.
…
The man’s messages were discovered by officers from the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Countering Extremism (Centre “E”), and they drew up reports against him for insulting a representative of the authorities and “discrediting” the Russian army. In court, the Belgorod resident pleaded guilty, but stated that he “had no intention of discrediting” and wrote the comments while intoxicated.
He also asked to be allowed to pay the fine in installments due to his difficult financial situation, explaining that his only income is a disability pension of 19,000 roubles. The court granted the request, allowing the obligations to be settled within three months.
The number of cases involving insults against Putin increased sharply after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to “Verstka”, in 2021, courts considered 33 such reports, and in 2022, there were already at least 84. In 2023, the figure decreased to 54, but in 2024 it increased again to 91. In the first seven months of 2025, courts considered at least 35 such cases.
In all cases, it was about minor hooliganism (Article 20.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences). Most of the reports were drawn up under Part 3 of this article, which allows for punishment for “disrespect” towards the authorities on the Internet. It was introduced in March 2019 on the initiative of United Russia.