A Rostov-on-Don resident was fined for using an emoji in a chat about military equipment.

The Sovetsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don fined Sergei Korovayny 30,000 rubles for using a negative emoji in response to a video of military equipment posted in a private chat. The court deemed this defamation of the army.

According to the court, Korovainy was a member of a building-wide chat. Under a video posted in the chat, which depicted a Russian Armed Forces military vehicle firing a salvo of ammunition, he left a mark (smiley face) depicting feces. Thus, in the court's opinion, he committed actions aimed at discrediting the army.

Korovainy appeared at the court hearing and pleaded not guilty, explaining that by tagging the video (smiley face), he expressed a negative attitude toward the person who posted the video in the building's community chat. He did not intend to insult or diminish the army's authority. The defendant also noted that such videos containing military equipment should not be published in open sources, according to a ruling on the website of the Soviet District Court.

However, the court viewed Korovayny's arguments that he expressed a negative attitude toward the author of the video by posting the emoticon "as a chosen defense position aimed at avoiding administrative liability," since he was not personally acquainted with the author of the video and had not previously had conflicts with him.

As a result, the court found Korovayny guilty of public actions aimed at discrediting the army 1 and sentenced him to an administrative fine of 30,000 rubles.

"Caucasian Knot" also wrote that the court found the playing of Verka Serduchka's song on March 8th at a cafe in the Leninakan village to be defamatory of the Russian army and fined the establishment's employee 45,000 rubles.