Aleksandr Stepanov

On 23 January 2021 the largest uncoordinated protest action - in support of Alexei Navalny - took place in Vladimir. More than 1,500 people took part in the procession from Teatralnaya Square to Victory Square. The police as usual asked the protesters to disperse and detained those who were particularly active. In addition to police officers, unidentified people in civilian clothes were engaged in "restoring order": they snatched people from the crowd and handed them over to law enforcers. The unknown persons did not introduce themselves, did not show any documents and did not explain the reason for the detention.

This angered many people, including Tomiks journalist Aleksandr Stepanov. Being an emotional person, he wrote an unfortunate tweet. "It was done in an emotional state, worrying about those people who, as I thought at the time, were illegally detained in the streets of Vladimir," Stepanov told the court hearing.

"The realisation of what [happened] came to him almost immediately after posting the ill-fated post. Of course, he immediately deleted it. And he could only hope that none of his two hundred subscribers had time to read it. Unfortunately, it turned out differently," said Philip Bagrianskii, Stepanov's lawyer, at the same hearing.

What happened was that Stepanov's message had been screenshot and circulated in anonymous Telegram channels with an audience of several thousand people. On 28 January the journalist's home was searched, his computer was confiscated, and he was detained the next day.

On 30 January a trial was held. Stepanov was accused of public calls for extremist actions (under Part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code). He pleaded guilty. The investigation asked to arrest Stepanov, the prosecutor's office asked for house arrest: Stepanov has a ten-year-old daughter and an elderly mother. In addition, on the eve of the hearing, the local cell of United Russia published a statement in which it asked the court to show leniency and not to put the journalist in custody. "Probably, at that time Stepanov did not realise the full measure of responsibility for these words," the statement said. The court sent Aleksandr Stepanov under house arrest for two months. During this time he was forbidden to use the phone and go online.

"It is good that both the aggrieved party and the court have already shown humanity to Aleksandr. He is at home with his family, he will have time to think about how to live and work further. And the Union of Journalists, if necessary, will help in any way we can," commented Aleksandr Karpilovich, chairman of the Union of Journalists of the Vladimir region, on the verdict.

On 25 March Frunzensky District Court of Vladimir considered Stepanov's case under special procedure and sentenced him to 1.5 years of suspended imprisonment with a ban on administering websites and social networks for a year.