16:59, 11 October 2023

Ossetian journalist Ruslan Totrov fined for his post on social network

Ruslan Totrov. Screenshot of the video https://alaniatv.ru/zhurnalist-ruslan-totrov-oshtrafovan-na-50-tysyach-rublej-za-diskreditatsiyu-vs-rf/

In Vladikavkaz, a court fined journalist Ruslan Totrov 20,000 roubles for his post about the detention of a young woman who was reading a book in Ukrainian. The court regarded the Ruslan Totrov’s comment on the above detention as inciting hatred or enmity.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that on December 1, 2022, the Promyshlenny District Court of Vladikavkaz fined Ruslan Totrov 50,000 roubles, finding him guilty of discrediting the Russian Armed Forces. A similar decision was pronounced under another administrative protocol drawn up against the journalist on November 14, 2022. Ruslan Totrov filed appeals against both fines, but the Supreme Court (SC) of North Ossetia upheld the courts’ decisions and rejected all defence arguments, including the fact that Ruslan Totrov lives abroad.

Ruslan Totrov left a post on Instagram** in which he commented on the detention of a female passenger on the Moscow-Vladikavkaz flight for reading a book in Ukrainian, the “Kavkaz.Realii”* reports. A linguistic examination found that the journalist’s post “expresses a negative attitude towards the state system through the use of expressive negative evaluative words” and “contains a statement aimed at inciting hatred and hostility towards a group of people.”

*Included by the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) into the register of foreign agents.

**On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoi Court of Moscow banned the activities in Russia of the Meta Company, owning the Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, in connection with extremist activities.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 10, 2023 at 03:49 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot