In Odesa, Kremlin narratives were promoted through the court

A person without the status of a lawyer wrote dozens of motions for the accused, which justified the Russian aggression, the occupation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine. These documents were officially filed with the court, voiced during public hearings, and in fact became a platform for spreading Russian propaganda.

The Center forPublic Investigations found out the details of this case.

From "human rights activist" to courtroom

According to the verdict of the Prymorskyi District Court of Odesa, the accused met a man who offered to help him in a criminal case. In fact, the man did not have a lawyer's certificate and could not represent him in court.

Nevertheless, he prepared about 20 motions and handed them to the defendant for signature and submission to the court. During the interrogation, the "human rights activist" confirmed the authorship of the documents and openly repeated Russian propaganda theses - he called the war a "special operation," denied the status of the Russian Federation as an aggressor country and spoke about the "world government" and the "Club of Rome."

The petitions were handed in at the courtroom or at the accused's workplace, after which they were officially registered and read out in open sessions.

The Vatican, the "World Government" and the justification of the occupation

Four motions filed from March to May 2023 were subjected to linguistic examination. Their content resembled a set of conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda stamps rather than legal documents.

The first petition claimed that the main culprits of the war were the United States and the EU, not Russia. Responsibility for the outbreak of hostilities was shifted to the Ukrainian authorities, which were called the"criminal presidential vertical," and Russia was presented not as an aggressor but as a participant in a"global scenario." The experts concluded that this is a typical justification for armed aggression through shifting responsibility.

The other two motions relied on the pseudo-scientific concept of the Club of Rome as an allegedly secret Vatican control center, a "world government" that issues binding directives to all states of the world to reduce the world's population from 8 to 3 billion people. It was this "directive" that justified Russia's armed aggression as a necessary tool for"population utilization" and assigned the role of"world gendarme."

Another document blamed the then-President of Ukraine for the outbreak of the conflict, accusing him of ignoring the Minsk agreements and"blockading" the so-called DPR and LPR. The occupation of Crimea was justified by"pressure from Ukrainian nationalists."

The petitions also explicitly justified the occupation of Crimea and promoted the idea of restoring the USSR-2. Some excerpts contained statements about Russia's "legitimate claims" to Crimea, Bessarabia, and Bukovyna, and repeated typical Kremlin narratives about "oppression of Russian speakers," "Nazis," and "terror against Donbas."

"I didn't read it" - and it didn't help

The man pleaded not guilty in court. He stated that he signed the petitions without reading them and believed that they were documents for his defense in another case.

The court rejected these arguments, as the defendant himself read the texts in open sessions and admitted that after signing, he did read the documents and partially disagreed with their content.

A psychiatric examination diagnosed him with an organic emotional-labile disorder with paranoid features, but the experts concluded that he was aware of his actions and could control them.

Five years and release

The court found the man guilty of justifying and denying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, as well as disseminating materials that justified the temporary occupation of Ukrainian territories.

He was sentenced to five years in prison without confiscation of property. At the same time, the court released him from serving his sentence with a probationary period of three years.

Among the mitigating circumstances, the court took into account a mental disorder, limited sanity and the fact that at the time of the sentencing the man declared a pro-Ukrainian position and recognized Russia as an aggressor country. In addition, he was charged with more than 11 thousand hryvnias for the cost of conducting examinations.

In early May, a resident of Mykolaiv was placed under round-the-clock house arrest for a series of pro-Russian posts on Telegram. In his post, he stated that"Mykolaiv and Odesa should become part of the Russian Federation" and called Ukrainians who supported Maidan"pots" who should allegedly "pay tribute to the United States."

Анна Бальчінос