SBU transfers case materials of propagandist and author of euphemism “polite people” to court

The Security Service of Ukraine submitted to court the case materials of the Russian propagandist, author of the euphemism “polite people”.

This was reported by the press service of the SBU Main Directorate in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on Facebook.

The SBU said that this phrase was used by the blogger-collaborator to refer to the occupation groups of the Russian Federation that seized Crimea in 2014 year.

«After the start of the full-scale war, he publicly called for the complete destruction of Kharkiv's civilian infrastructure and the continuation of massive rocket and bomb strikes on the city», — the special service emphasized.

They noted that the blogger is currently one of the Kremlin's key mouthpieces, spreading anti-Ukrainian content through his own social networks with a total audience of almost 1 million users.

According to the investigation, the defendant began publicly supporting the aggressor during the seizure of Crimea, where he lived and earned money by freelancing.   Later, he headed the occupation Internet publication «Golos Sevastopol» there, which spreads Kremlin fakes about the war against Ukraine.   Based on the collected evidence, the defendant is charged under five articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:  

• Part 1 of Art. 110 (encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine);
• Part 2 of Article 109 (public calls for a violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or for the seizure of state power, as well as the distribution of materials with calls for such actions);
• Part 1 of Article 111-2 (assistance to an aggressor state);
• Part 6 of Article 111-1 (collaborative activities);
• Article 436 (war propaganda).

  The SBU recalled that in 2022, investigators informed him of suspicion under Art. 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (justification, recognition as lawful, denial of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).   The Prosecutor General's Office added that during 2022 the accused repeatedly appeared in propaganda media as a «military expert».

In particular, the accused provided comments to the TV channels «Pervyy Sevastopolsky» and «Ukraine-ru». In them, he approved the missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and the aggressive offensive actions of the Russian army.

«In numerous interviews, he called for the “liberation” of Ukrainian cities, speculated on the direction of further attacks, compared the war in Ukraine to “Afghanistan” and answered questions about the “invasion of Belarus into Western Ukraine”», — the Office of the Prosecutor General noted.

He faces up to 12 years in prison.