23:12, 22 March 2024

Blogger Agafonova pleads guilty to desecration of "Motherland"

Alyona Agafonova. Screenshot of the video posted on Agafonova's Instagram (the activities of the Meta Company, owning Instagram, are banned in Russia) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr_Y69VAg6A/

Alyona Agafonova, a blogger, arrested in Volgograd and accused of desecrating the symbol of military glory because of her video filmed near the monument "The Motherland is Calling!", has asked the court to consider her case by a special procedure.

In the summer of 2023, Agafonova filmed a video on the Mamayev Kurgan, in which she pretends to touch the chest of the sculpture "The Motherland is Calling!" with her finger, laughing at the same time, and then falls on the grass at the foot of the monument. She later apologized.

The Volgograd Regional Court will consider the criminal case against the 23-year-old Agafonova under special procedure, since Alyona had herself asked for it, the United Press Service of the Volgograd Regional Courts has reported.

The special procedure for considering criminal cases presupposes that the defendant fully agrees with the charges. In this case, the court considers the case without examining proofs, which significantly speeds up the trial, and the defendant can hope for a more lenient punishment than his/her article provides for.

The part of the article that Agafonova is charged with stipulates a fine of 2-5 million roubles, up to five years of forced labour or up to five years of freedom deprivation.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 22, 2024 at 05:02 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: Caucasian Knot