On 16 August 2024, independent Russian news outlet Pskovskaya Gubernia reported that one of its journalists, Pavel Dmitriyev, had been fined 30 thousand rubles on charges of “discrediting” the Russian army. The sentence was delivered on the same day by the city court of Pskov in northwestern Russia.

In its ruling, the court said that the journalist was being fined for a statement in a regular show he hosts on the YouTube channel of Pskovskaya Gubernia, a local independent news outlet from Pskov, whose journalists are in exile since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The comments were related to a possible new wave of mobilization following presidential elections in Russia in March 2024.

The comments were cited by Pskovskaya Gubernia as follows: “After the presidential elections, when their hands will be untied, it is quite possible that there will be another wave of mobilization, this must be avoided, the war is a crime, which Vladimir Putin and his regime unleashed…”.

In its sentence, the court stated that Dmitriev’s statement portrays Putin’s actions ” as criminal [and] aimed at unleashing a military conflict.”