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Moscow court fines Novaya-Europe’s chief editor Kirill Martynov €360 for lack of ‘foreign agent labelling’ on VK

A court in Moscow has fined Kirill Martynov, the chief editor of Novaya Gazeta Europe, 30,000 rubles (€360) for failing to attach a “foreign agent disclaimer” to a post he made on VK, Russia’s social media website, Martynov’s lawyer Ilnur Sharapov says.

According to the court verdict, the reason behind the fine is Martynov’s comment to a post written by his former student peer. The latter posted the following: “Kirill Martynov. My former collegemate. If I were a [police officer], I would sentence Kirill to serve time in a maximum security penitentiary, somewhere where there’s hard labour in the fresh air, and a selection of leisure activities at a prison entertainment club, such as reading books or playing chess.” Martynov reposted this, adding a comment: “What do your collegemates dream of?”

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The court papers say Martynov’s “crime scene” was the apartment he is registered in Moscow, although Novaya-Europe’s chief editor resides abroad.

Singer Monetochka (Elizaveta Gyrdymova) was earlier fined for the same wrongdoing. People declared “foreign agents” by Russia’s Ministry of Justice are obliged to put disclaimers on any social media posts, revealing their “foreign agent” status. Gyrdymova was added to the list in January 2023 for condemning the Ukraine War.

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