Emilia Slabunova, a member of the Karelian Legislative Assembly, has been fined 30 thousand rubles ($430) under the law for discrediting the army. The court qualified as a violation Slabunova's request to spend money on building schools in Russia instead of the military operation in Ukraine. She reported about the court’s decision on her telegram channel on February 2.
The case against Emilia Slabunova was initiated by Leonid Liminchuk, a United Russia party member. He had filed a complaint about the Yabloko party representative’s post in which she urged to invest more money in education, rather than military actions. The Petrozavodsk court found her guilty of discrediting the army and fined her 30 thousand rubles.
"This decision is a political one and the outcome of the trial was a foregone conclusion. Clearly, this all was orchestrated to cause trouble to the opposition and create as many obstacles to my activities as possible", Slabunova said.
Emilia Slabunova is a representative on the Parliament of Karelia from the Yabloko party. In the regional parliament, she had filed a complaint to the Federal Antimonopoly Service about the auction on which 1136.9 hectares of Karelian forests had been leased for 20 years to the firms of businessman Yuri Kovalchuk. Slabunova had also tried to get revoked the permit given to the Russian Military Historical Society for excavations in the Sandarmoh forest massif, a burial place for victims of Stalin’s Great Terror.
In January 2023, Emilia Slabunova proposed to make a criminal law against public calls for nuclear strikes. The Parliament of Karelia declined the proposal. According to Leonid Liminchuk of the United Russia party, trying to prohibit demands for the destruction of humanity by nuclear weapons is a "political sabotage by the Yabloko party."
