On 30 May 2024, a court in Syktyvkar, the capital of Russia’s autonomous Komi Republic, fined the editor of regional independent outlet Komi Daily, Valera Ilyinov, for allegedly “discrediting the Russian army”. The news was reported on by the outlet itself, which specified that Ilyinov had been fined 30 thousand rubles.
The editor of Komi Daily was incriminated for a post in the outlet’s Telegram channel, which was published on 24 February 2023, on the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to Komi Daily, Ilyinov had also recently been fined 10 thousand rubles on grounds of “inciting hatred” against Russians, for a Komi Daily publication which referred to the idea that the Russian language had been forced upon nations bordering Russia, due to which some citizens of neighboring countries no longer wish to speak it.
It was unclear whether Ilyinov was still based in Russia at the time of his conviction. The Komi Republic is an autonomous region of Russia, which is home to the ethnic Komi minority.