CHITA, Russia -- A court in the Siberian city of Chita has fined a blogger for sharing on Instagram a dream he had where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy makes an appearance.
The Central District Court told RFE/RL on December 12 that it had ordered Ivan Losev to pay a 30,000-ruble ($470) fine after finding him guilty of discrediting Russia's armed forces, which are involved in Moscow's ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Losev told RFE/RL that the court's ruling was made on December 8. He called the case against him a sign of "idiocy" and said the hearing was held without his presence as he had not been informed properly and in a timely manner about its date and time.
The charge against Losev stemmed from his post on Instagram on September 23, two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization for the war in Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of Russians, mostly men, fled the country in response.
In his Instagram post, Losev described a dream in which he saw himself mobilized to the war, only to be captured along with other Russian soldiers by Ukrainian armed forces led by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
"[Ukrainian solders] rush inside and tie everyone up and are going to shoot everyone. And at that moment, Zelenskiy passes me and says, 'Oh, I saw your stories on Instagram. Glory to Ukraine!', and I answer him, 'Glory to the Heroes!', and he says 'Well, let this one go and shoot all the rest.' And then we stay together, watching all that, and I say to him 'Can I take a selfie picture with you?' and he says 'You can," Losev's post on Instagram said.
Losev told RFE/RL that the regional Anti-Extremism Center said it found at least six reasons to launch an administrative probe into his post.
"I cannot even picture that a Federal Security Service officer of some 40 years of age... sat and with a serious expression on his face typed a copy of my story about how I saw Zelenskiy in my dream! It is absolutely idiotic," Losev said.
