The KS received the first complaint about a criminal article about military fakes

The former municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, sentenced to the seven years of imprisonment for the extension of false information about the Armed Forces, complained to the Constitutional Court (Constitutional Court) of the Criminal Code under which he was convicted. He also asks the KS to check the norms of the Law on Local Self -Government, which give the deputy immunity from criminal prosecution for his speeches, but in fact they do not provide such protection. Earlier, the COP has already concluded that the ban on criticism of the military does not contradict the constitution, but he has not yet checked the norm on military fakes.

The former Moscow municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, convicted of the distribution of the deliberately false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court, in which he asks to check for compliance with the basic law Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code (Criminal Code), which provides for liability for fakes about the army. This was announced by Kommersant by lawyer Olga Podolova, representing the applicant in the Constitutional Court. In addition, he disputes the norms of the Law “On the General Principles of the Organization of Local Self -Government”, which promise deputies protection from persecution for the statements made by them in the exercise of authority. According to the KS electronic file cabinet, the complaint is on preliminary study.

Recallthat a member of the Council of Deputies of the Krasnoselsky District of Moscow Alexei Gorinov became in 2022 the first sentenced to real deprivation of liberty under the new Art. 207.3 Criminal Code. The reason for the adoption of the seven -year sentence was his performance at a meeting of the Council on March 15, in which he condemned a special military operation (SV) and urged in connection not to hold a district competition of children’s drawings. In November 2024, Mr. Gorinov was convicted for another three years prisons for a public justification of terrorism.

In his complaint, the applicant proves that the established Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code The ban is a form of intervention in freedom of speech aimed at suppressing criticism and free competition.

After all, he was convicted both for the statements about facts and for the expression of evaluative opinion. The design of the contested article creates a situation in which the state becomes the only permissible source of information, and not false information as such, but statements that contradict the official position are subjected to persecution. This is unacceptable in a democratic society and conflicts with the ban on the establishment of a mandatory state ideology enshrined in Art. 13 of the Constitution, emphasized in circulation in the Constitutional Court. The complaint also provides the position of the UN working group on arbitrary detentions, which in 2023 came to the conclusion that the deprivation of the applicant of liberty on the basis of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code violated his right to freedom of opinion.

Mr. Gorinov also asks the KS to check the provisions of Art. 40 of the Law “On the General Principles of the Organization of Local Self -Government”, according to which the municipal deputy is endowed with the right to freely exercise his powers and is exempted from liability for statements. However, the law has a reservation: immunity does not apply to cases when the deputy has committed public insults, slander or other violations, the liability for which is provided for by federal law. Such an internal contradiction deprives the norm of “any practical meaning”, because because of this it practically ceases to act, the applicant notes.

He asks the KS to recognize controversial norms contradicting the Constitution, as well as decide that the law enforcement decisions made on the basis of Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code, subject to review.

According to the defense of the ex-deputy, this is the first complaint to the Constitutional Court of the Criminal Code about fakes. Recall that the amendments on the introduction of punishment for discrediting the army and the dissemination of false information about it were adopted by the State Duma in March 2022, literally a week after the beginning of his own. In the same year, the first sentences under Art. 207.3 Criminal Code. In 2023, 65 people were convicted of it, and in 2024-already 90.

Previously, the KS has already recognized as lawful the ban on criticism of the military, rejecting about two dozen complaints about Article 20.3.3. The Code of Administrative Offenses, providing for administrative liability for public discrediting the armed forces. At the same time, the court indicated that public speeches carrying a negative assessment of the activities of the interests of the Russian Federation can have a negative impact, reduce the determination and efficiency of the military tasks set before them, and thereby actually play the enemy’s hands.

Anastasia Root