Russian man given 14 days in jail after writing ‘Putin is a dickhead’ on election ballot

A court in the Russian city of Penza, in the Volga region, has sentenced blogger Stanislav Morozov to 14 days of administrative arrest on charges of petty hooliganism, independent media outlet 7x7 reported on Tuesday, citing the court's press service.

Morozov posted a video on Saturday that showed him filling out his ballot for Russia’s parliamentary elections while standing in the middle of the street. He crossed out the name of the United Russia candidate and marked the boxes for all the other candidates on the first ballot, and wrote “Putin is a dickhead” on the second one.

Morozov’s mother confirmed his detention to Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti, adding that she did not know the reason her son was sent to jail.

Morozov is a video blogger from Penza. This year, he has actively reported on the detention of local residents and the pressure placed on them to sign military service contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry.

According to independent outlet SOTAvision, the FSB previously opened a criminal case against Morozov for “inciting extremist activity” after he had posted a video discussing the beating of Russian men by military enlistment staff; in the video, he compared the situation to events in Ukraine and urged Penza residents to “unite” against the Russian government. The blogger was briefly detained in July but was released after being banned from leaving the country.

In June, it was reported that security officers were rounding up male civilians in the Penza region and forcing them to enlist to fight in Ukraine. The National Guard later confirmed that an “inter-agency operation to identify citizens who had not registered for military service” had been carried out in the region. The local Interior Ministry later threatened to prosecute anybody sharing information about the string of detentions.