A court in the southwestern Russian city of Kursk has fined a resident of the Ukrainian-occupied Sudzha district on the Kursk region’s border with Ukraine for organising a protest on Sunday to highlight the plight of those forced to flee their homes amid the ongoing Ukrainian incursion into the region.
Andrey Gerasimenko was fined 20,000 rubles (€200) for organising a protest without notifying the authorities, the Kursk region’s court press service said on Tuesday.
A post made in a group on Russian social network VK calling on Sudzha residents to meet on Kursk’s main square for a “walk” was blocked at the request of Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor on Sunday, news channel 7x7 Horizontal Russia reported.
Gerasimenko, 37, is from the village of Malaya Loknya, 15km north of Sudzha, which has been occupied by Ukrainian forces since their incursion into Russia’s Kursk region began in August.
During the court hearing on Tuesday, Gerasimenko pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied that he had any intention of organising a rally, the court service said.
On Sunday, several dozen residents of the Sudzha district staged a rally on Kursk’s main square demanding that they be acknowledged as victims of war and that the Russian generals in charge of defending the region be punished for failing to prevent the Ukrainian incursion. A regional official later told the protesters that they were participating in an “illegal action” and demanded they disperse.
On Tuesday, Kursk region Governor Alexey Smirnov held a meeting with residents of the Sudzha district, where he announced the dismissal of district head Alexander Bogachyov. Smirnov was himself reprimanded by the regional Prosecutor’s Office for failing to ensure adequate temporary accommodation for district residents forced to flee their homes.