Verstka said the cases were not limited to public posts. Proceedings were also opened over material forwarded to acquaintances, relatives or colleagues.
In the Volgograd region, a Russian-language teacher at a rural school was fined 3,000 rubles over a voice message forwarded to a work chat of 15 people. The court found the message described "an attack by UAVs on objects in a populated area, specifying the date, time, name and exactly which objects were damaged."
In Dagestan, a local resident was fined 1,500 rubles over video from a home surveillance camera showing drone explosions. The man sent the recording to a family chat on WhatsApp, after which the video ended up on social media.
The articles under which the protocols were drawn up vary. In the Leningrad, Ryazan, Tula, Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Volgograd, Rostov, Orenburg and Tomsk regions, as well as Tatarstan, Dagestan and Chuvashia, residents were penalized for violating regional laws — orders issued by operational headquarters and governors.
In Karachay-Cherkessia, two people were fined 30,000 rubles each under an article on abuse of media freedom. They had filmed video showing that a UAV attacked an unfinished hotel in a resort village, and the court deemed the information "deliberately false."
In annexed Crimea, cases were opened under a federal article on failure to comply with rules of conduct during a state of emergency. At least eight people were fined for publishing the aftermath of drone attacks on the peninsula.
At least three people faced two cases at once — they posted video of the aftermath of attacks on different platforms. A resident of the Smolensk region was given two fines of 3,000 rubles each for posting clips in two VKontakte groups.
One of the cases found by Verstka was terminated: the court concluded that sending video material via WhatsApp is not public in nature and does not constitute an offense. In another case, the court returned the protocol for deficiencies to be corrected and demanded that the location of the violation be established.
According to TASS, restrictions on publishing the aftermath of UAV attacks and the work of air defense are in force in 62 Russian regions, as well as in annexed Sevastopol and Crimea.