On 27 March 2023, Russian authorities opened a criminal case against Semen Kochkin, journalist and author of the “Serditaya Chuvashiya” (“Angry Chuvashiya”) Telegram channel, for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army through a post in the channel. The publication in question was related to Russian missile attacks on Ukraine: in the text, Kochkin claimed that the person responsible for the attacks was Robert Baranov, a Russian military official born in the region of Chuvashiya who heads the Main Computing Center of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The Main Computing Center was earlier identified by Russian independent media as determining targets for missile strikes in Ukraine. In his post, Kochkin wrote that Baranov was “a killer, a terrorist and a shame for the people of Chuvashiya”. In previous cases, Kochkin was already fined three times for “discrediting” the Russian army. He lives outside of Russia since October 2021.
UPDATE: On November 29, authorities in Chuvashiya drew up a fining protocol in relation to Kochkin, on charges of allegedly participating in the activities of an organization declared as “undesirable” in Russia. If found guilty by a court, Kochkin faces a fine of up to 15 thousand rubles. The case was reportedly opened for publications in Kochkin’s Telegram channel mentioning the Free Buryatiya Foundation, a civil society group demanding autonomy for the Russian region of Buryatiya and reporting on cases of soldiers from the region drafted to fight in the war in Ukraine.