On 25 September 2023, Alexander Romanenkov, the editor-in-chief of “Real Journalism”, a local news agency in the city of Yekaterinburg, was fined 30 thousand rubles on grounds of allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army’s actions Ukraine. The news was reported by Vecherniye Vedomosti, another local outlet in Yekaterinburg, which quoted the press service a local district court. According to the outlet, it was not immediately clear what publications Romanenkov had been fined for in this case.
According to Vecherniye Vedomosti, a local Russian nationalist movement had earlier filed a complaint with authorities in which it complained about publications by Romanenkov and several other Yekaterinburg journalists. Following this, in July a district court in Yekaterinburg fined the editor-in-chief of Real Journalism 45 thousand rubles a first time, under the same administrative article as in the following case.