Fear Statistics. Part 2: Military "Fakes"
More than 300 people have been convicted in Russia under the "star" Article 207.3.

"NeMoscow" continues its series of publications devoted to the operation of repressive law in Russia. We analyze judicial statistics on administrative and criminal cases—from military "fakes" and discrediting the army to cases of extremism, rehabilitation of Nazism, participation in undesirable organizations, and other offenses that are increasingly used to pressure and intimidate Russians. The goal is to show how these provisions are applied in practice, who is punished and for what, and what trends lie behind the sentences.
🔶 The article on "war fakes" (Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code) was introduced in March 2022 as a government response to anti-war statements and the dissemination of information about the war from unofficial sources. The maximum penalty under this article is 15 years in prison.
🔶 Since then, Russian courts have heard 337 criminal cases. This provision is being applied systematically and regularly: since 2023, approximately 100 cases have been filed annually.
🔶 The largest number of cases are in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Moscow and Rostov regions, and the Krasnodar Territory.
🔶 An analysis of 120 available sentences shows that the most common punishment chosen by the court is imprisonment. The harshest sentences are awarded to defendants who have fled Russia.
🔶 This article could be called "star-studded": the cases include many against well-known politicians, journalists, and cultural figures. The grounds for persecution are usually posts, comments, and videos about war events.
We used a parser to analyze this text. "The Judicial Monster" From the human rights project "OVD-Info," which allows you to download the entire array of cases heard in Russian courts.
In the first publication of the series we told about cases of discrediting the army. The second article is devoted to cases of Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code — about the “public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces,” or an article about military “fakes,” as human rights activists and journalists have dubbed it. This article have included The article was added to the Russian Criminal Code in March 2022—the authorities' response to anti-war protests and statements, as well as the dissemination of information about the war that does not originate from official Russian sources. The maximum penalty under this article is 15 years in prison.
337 criminal cases Russian courts have heard cases involving military "fakes" since the article's publication. These figures are as of January 1, 2026, according to NeMoskva, which analyzed court case files. Over the past three years, the number of cases has remained stable: 100–110 people are charged each year.
In terms of the number of cases considered in the courts, it is in the lead by a wide margin. Moscow — 96 cases. Second place is occupied by St. Petersburg — 19 cases, in third place Moscow region — 16 cases. The top five also included Rostov region (12 cases) and Krasnodar (11 cases).
According to the court case file, in 293 cases, the defendants were sentenced (imprisonment, probation, fine, etc.). Twenty-two defendants were sentenced to compulsory medical measures (usually, this punishment involves compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital). In eight cases, the cases were returned to the prosecutor or investigator, in six cases they were transferred to other courts based on their jurisdiction, and in five cases, the cases were dismissed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Not all verdicts are published in the Russian courts' records. A NeMoskva journalist was able to find texts for only 120 cases. Among them:
- Seventy defendants were sentenced to prison terms, including one sentence in a maximum-security penal colony. In 49 cases, the verdicts were handed down in absentia, as the defendants had already fled Russia. It was in these cases that the courts imposed the harshest sentences—seven years in prison or more. Three defendants were sentenced to penal colonies.
- Eighteen defendants were sentenced to forced labor and correctional labor, with a portion of their wages withheld for the benefit of the state. The sentences ranged from two months to three years.
- 12 defendants were sentenced to various fines, ranging from 150 to 1,8 million rubles.
- Nine defendants received suspended sentences ranging from 6 months to 5 years 6 months.
- In two cases, the cases were dismissed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, and the defendants were released in the courtroom.
Read also: Fear Statistics. Part 1: discrediting the army
The most severe punishment — 11 years' imprisonment — was sentenced in absentia. In July 2024, the defendants was Mark Feigin, a well-known Russian lawyer and blogger, former State Duma deputy and deputy mayor Samara. He was found guilty on four counts, which the court found to contain "knowingly false information" about the use of Russian armed forces.

The criminal prosecution was prompted by videos featuring Feigin on YouTube. For example, his interview with Israel's Channel 9, titled "Bucha is Genocide," which aired in April 2022 (the original video is no longer available). On the same day, Feigin held a stream called "The Bucha Massacre," which became the second episode in his case.
The third episode is Feigin’s interview with the Ukrainian “24 Channel”, released in July 2022, titled "Putin Has Already Annoyed Everyone." The fourth is a conversation with Ukrainian political scientist Taras Berezovets, which came out In April 2023, under the title "Will Greetings from Uman Arrive in Moscow?" During the conversation, Feigin said that Russian soldiers were killing civilians in the Ukrainian city of Uman.
In addition to the prison term, the lawyer was fined 4,5 million rubles.
Mark Feigin was formerly one of the youngest State Duma deputies (1994–1995) and served as Samara's vice-mayor for ten years (1997–2007). He gained widespread recognition in the 2010s for his involvement in high-profile criminal cases as a lawyer, defending members of a punk band. Pussy Riot, a Ukrainian servicewoman Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian director Oleg SentsovHis work on these cases was accompanied by an active public campaign in the media and social networks.
In 2018 year was deprived lawyer status, which Feigin himself and his supporters interpreted as a politically motivated decision related to his participation in opposition and human rights activities.
After the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Mark Feygin began actively broadcasting and streaming on YouTube (now on his channel are signed 1,9 million people), including joint programs with Ukrainian speakers. Its broadcasts discuss military and political events in Russia, Ukraine, and the world. Feigin is currently lives in France, his wife - citizen Ukraine.
The most lenient sentence in the case of "military fakes" among those available for review, got a citizen Mikhail Bezrukikh, Leningrad Vyborg. In December 2025, he was sentenced to two months of correctional labor and had 5% of his salary withheld for the state for a comment he posted in the VKontakte group "Live As You Want in Primorsk?" Bezrukikh wrote: "...The death toll from the strike on Odesa on March 2 has risen to nine. Russian troops attacked an apartment building in Odesa with a drone on the night of March 2; the explosion destroyed an entire entrance. Among the dead is a three-month-old child and his mother..."
This is how Bezrukikh responded to the shelling of Odessa on March 2, 2024. A Russian attack drone struck a residential building, completely destroying one of the entrances. As a result, 12 people were killed, including five children, and another 20 were injured. The accuracy of the information about the strike was confirmed. numerous video recordings eyewitnesses. However, a Russian court deemed the comment "false information that does not correspond to official information from the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the progress and results of the special military operation."
A NeMoskva correspondent learned from leaked Ministry of Internal Affairs data that Mikhail Bezrukikh is 76 years old. He was born in Leningrad and lives in Primorsk, a city near Leningrad. According to his personal VKontakte page, Bezrukikh enjoys fishing and is raising four grandchildren. Until 2020, he frequently traveled to Finland with his family. Before his sentencing, he wrote critical comments about local authorities on social media.
The largest fine — 1,8 million rubles — got blogger from Yoshkar-Ola Andrey Filippov. In June 2023, he was found guilty of publishing a video on his YouTube channel titled "The War Between Russia and Ukraine: A Ukrainian's Viewpoint." Male year I spent During his time in pretrial detention before he was sentenced, he was prohibited from visiting or calling close relatives.
In August of that year, the Supreme Court of Mari El upheld the lower court's ruling. The fine was extended over four years, and Filippov is now required to pay 37,5 rubles from his income each month. He will not fully repay the debt to the state until June 2027. Politzek-Info Project opened collection to help Filippov, but in a few weeks managed to collect only about 10 thousand rubles.

At least two of the accused were freed from punishment in the courtroom due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. We are talking about a resident Kyzyl Victoria Kuular и Orenburg resident Vadim Guzachev. It's unclear exactly when they committed the acts the authorities consider "military fakes": information about them has been redacted from the verdicts. It is only known that in both cases, the allegations involved comments on social media.
So, Kuular left in the local group A VKontakte comment reads: "In Ukraine, the blood being shed includes that of Ukrainian civilians! Ukrainian women, mothers just like yours, are being raped, and children are being killed; corpses are everywhere." (Punctuation preserved.) The investigation and the court found that this comment "misrepresented" the purpose and objectives of the Russian army's actions.
As for the verdict against Guzachev, the text Even the comment itself was removed from the website of the Leninsky District Court of Orenburg, which was deemed a violation of the law. From the context, it appears that it referred to the shelling of a maternity ward by the Russian army (likely referring to impact at a children's hospital in Mariupol in March 2022, when five people died and 17 were injured).
"Star" article
The article on "military fakes" could be called the most "star-studded" in modern Russian justice. Nearly half of the verdicts under it involve prominent Russians. Among them:
Politicians and political scientists:
- former head of the Krasnoselsky municipal district of Moscow Ilya Yashin (in December 2022 sentenced to 8 years and 6 months in a general regime penal colony, released as a result of the prisoner exchange in August 2024);
- Vice President of the Free Russia Foundation Vladimir Milov (8 years in absentia);
- former deputy of the Shchukino municipal district in Moscow Anastasia Bryukhanova (8 years in absentia);
- former co-chairman of the Right Cause party Leonid Gozman (8 years 6 months in absentia);
- former speechwriter for Vladimir Putin Abbas Gallyamov (8 years in absentia);
- former head of the Krasnoselsky municipal district of Moscow (after Yashin) Elena Kotenochkina (7 years 6 months in absentia);
- former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov (8 years in absentia);
- former president of the oil company Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky (the sentence has not yet been passed, at the end of January 2026 approved indictment).
Creative figures:
- theater director, film director, playwright, screenwriter Ivan Vyrypaev (7 years 6 months in absentia);
- writer Dmitry Glukhovsky (8 years in absentia);
- performance artist and media manager, former member of the group Pussy Riot Petr Verzilov (8 years 4 months);
- producer and animator Pavel Muntyan (8 years in absentia);
- activist, former member of the group Pussy Riot Lucy Stein (6 years in absentia);
- actor Arthur Smolyaninov (the verdict has not yet been passed).
Lawyers and economists:
- former lawyer, blogger Mark Feigin (11 years in absentia);
- economist, professor at the University of Chicago Konstantin Sonin (8 years 6 months);
- lawyer Ilya Novikov (8 years 6 months).
Journalists and bloggers:
- journalist Dmitry Kolezev (7 years 6 months in absentia);
- journalist Александр Невзоров (8 years in absentia);
- media manager, former editor-in-chief of Afisha magazine and publisher of Meduza Ilya Krasilshchik (8 years in absentia);
- blogger Veronica Belotserkovskaya (9 years in absentia);
- former editor of Russia's Channel One Marina Ovsyannikova (8 years 6 months in absentia);
- writer, former editor-in-chief of the Dozhd TV channel Mikhail Zygar (8 years 6 months in absentia).
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, many prominent figures made harsh statements about the actions of the Russian army, explains Evgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the human rights project "First Department."
"This is a charge for words, especially those spoken publicly. Prominent Russians have active social media presences, appear on TV about topical issues, and make videos, thereby attracting the attention of law enforcement and making themselves easy targets." — Smirnov explained to NeMoskva.
He also noted that it is easier to gather evidence for these cases than, for example, for the article on discrediting the army, and a criminal case can be initiated immediately (for a criminal case for discrediting, one must first receive an administrative penalty).
See also: Journalism under investigation, a special project by "NeMoskvy"
Most of the "criminals" received sentences for their posts on social networks or videos. Mikhail Khodorkovsky judged for a tweet on an English-language blog (the account is currently inaccessible). He posted documents claiming that more than 48 soldiers had died in the Russian army by August 2022. The document allegedly referred to a letter addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko on behalf of Deputy Finance Minister Irina Okladnikova. Its authenticity has not been confirmed.
From the text sentence To Dmitry Glukhovsky it's clear that he They were accused of creating so-called deepfakes (videos allegedly "edited with artificially created evidence"). What exactly is being discussed is unclear, but the text states that Glukhovsky "created" this evidence while reporting on Russian missile strikes on residential buildings in Ukraine.
Together with a political scientist and former speechwriter for Putin Abbas Gallyamov defendants in his case was passing Ukrainian journalist Alexander the Reverend. According to investigators, Gallyamov told him in an interview about the destruction of settlements and the killing of civilians in Kramatorsk, which contradicts statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Reverend's lawyer noticed The absurdity of the charges: as a Ukrainian citizen, the journalist was obligated to rely on statements from his country's Ministry of Defense, not Russia's. Despite this, he was also sentenced to eight years in prison.
This article on cases involving defamation of the army is part of the "Fear Statistics" study. In the next publication, we'll analyze data on extremism cases.

