CHITA, Russia -- The mother of a man in the Siberian city of Chita has been charged with discrediting Russia's armed forces and insulting President Vladimir Putin after her son was fined for sharing on Instagram a dream he had where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made an appearance.
Igor Losev told RFE/RL on December 15 that police charged his mother, Nelli Loseva, for "likes" she put under two of his posts on social media saying that Russian-occupied Crimea is Ukraine and Putin is "a mother...er."
According to Losev, his mother was informed that she will be summoned to the police again next week.
On December 8, a court in Chita ordered Losev to pay a 30,000-ruble ($470) fine after finding him guilty of discrediting Russia's armed forces involved in Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The charge against Losev stemmed from a post on Instagram on September 23, two days after 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 for the war, only to be captured along with other Russian soldiers by Ukrainian forces led by 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.
