Russian Blogger Jailed for 14 Days Over Insult to Putin Written on Election Ballot

A court in the Russian city of Penza has sentenced blogger Stanislav Morozov to 14 days of administrative arrest for "petty hooliganism." The case stemmed from a video he filmed on Saturday, right on the street, showing him filling out a ballot in the State Duma elections and writing an insulting phrase about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the Telegram channel "Gorizont," on the first ballot Morozov crossed out the candidate from the ruling United Russia party and marked all the other boxes. On the second ballot, he wrote: "Putin is a jerk" (using an obscene Russian term). Just a few hours after the video was published, police detained the blogger — his mother confirmed this to the channel "Ostorozhno," saying her son had been placed in a detention center.

Who Is the Detained Blogger

Stanislav Morozov, from Penza in Russia's Volga Federal District, has since the start of the year regularly reported on the detention of Russian citizens and the pressure authorities put on them to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense and go fight in Ukraine, Novaya Gazeta notes.

According to the independent outlet SOTAvision, Russia's FSB had previously opened a criminal case against Morozov on charges of "calls for extremist activity" — after he published a video showing men being beaten by military enlistment office staff and called on Penza residents to unite against the authorities. He was released at the time, but the authorities banned him from leaving Russia.

Source: novinky.cz