On 23 August 2023, authorities in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don charged Elena Dorovskikh, the editor-in-chief of the local pro-government online media 1Rnd, with “discrediting” the Russian army. On the following day, a local court refused to examine the case, claiming that the limitation period for the offence in question had passed. Dorovskikh was charged for a news item published by 1Rnd in October, in which the media informed of anti-war flyers glued to a lamp pole near police headquarters in Rostov-on-Don. The flyers proposed help in avoiding mobilization in Russia, as well as gave an instruction to Russian soldiers on how to surrender in Ukraine. In the news item, 1Rnd published a photo of the first flyer, which it described as “extremist”. The online media outlet also interviewed an anonymous police official, who claimed that if authorities “wanted to”, there were “several ways to find and detain” those who set up the flyers.
Russia-Ukraine WarCensorship and regulationPublication ban, take-down order or forced deletion, fine, administrative action