On 15 November 2022, a court in Yakutsk, the capital of Russia’s Yakutia region, fined local journalist Timofey Yefremov 30,000 rubles for using the word “frontline” on air. In late September, Yefremov spoke to Dozhd TV, an independent exiled Russian media, commenting on anti-mobilization protests in Yakutia. According to media reports, he said “it’s impossible to a send a woman to the frontline” and showed a video from a protest, where a woman used the word “war” in Russian and held a poster with the same word written in the Yakut language.
Judges in Yakutsk ruled that using the word “front” is not permitted by Russian legislation, and that it amounts to “discreditation” of the use of the Russian Armed Forces. Instead, the ruling said, Yefremov should have used the term “line of contact”. The journalist’s fine was first overturned by a court of appeals, then confirmed again in January.