 Source: HRO.org (info) Andrei Teslenko, a blogger from Barnaul, is being accused of disseminating extremist material for having reposted Aleksei Navalny’s 2011 election campaign video on the social networking site VKontakte. On 5th November 2013, according to the SOVA Centre, legal proceedings were initiated against Andrei Teslenko (an opposition activist from Barnaul) for administrative offences, on the basis of Article 20.29 of the Administrative Offences Code (disseminating extremist material). Teslenko’s crime, according to officials from the Counter-Terrorist Centre of Altai region police department, was that he posted on his VKontakte page the video ‘Let us remind the Rogues and Swindlers of their 2002 manifesto’, which had appeared on Youtube and on Alexei Navalny’s blog in 2011. A decision in Teslenko’s case is expected on 7th November. It was only in October 2013 that public attention was drawn to the fact that the Kirov district court in Novosibirsk had banned the video on 21st June. The video, alongside a number of other materials created by Russian nationalists, was entered into the Federal List of Extremist Materials under No. 2066. This election campaign video, which called on electors to cast their vote for any party other than United Russia, does not contain any sign of extremism and we believe Teslenko’s prosecution to be unlawful. Translated by Catriona Gillham |
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