A court in Russia’s Stavropol region fined a local woman after classifying an audio message she shared in a Telegram chat about looking for missing servicemen as “discrediting” the Russian army, according to Verstka.media on January 14.
Verstka reported the woman, Elena Peshly, was ordered to pay about $191 under Russia’s administrative offense statute on “discrediting” the armed forces .
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The outlet said the court ruling described her audio message as containing an allegation that people linked to the Russian military carried out actions aimed at killing other Russian servicemen, along with other complaints about how troops were treated and equipped.
Peshly told other chat members that her husband had worked briefly in military police in Kursk before being assigned to an assault unit, after which contact was lost in January 2025, Verstka said.
She later wrote that after months of disputes and complaints, her husband was recorded as having left his unit without authorization, known by the Russian abbreviation “SOCH,” and warned others: “They warned us a long time ago: if you write complaints, we’ll mark you as SOCH—and since July they’ve marked him as SOCH,” Peshly told.
Faсing the charges, Peshly admitted guilt and told the hearing she had not sought to discredit the military and “only wanted to find” her husband, but the judge still imposed the fine.
Russia introduced the “discrediting” offense in early March 2022 after the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, signed new wartime censorship legislation, and it has since been used widely against critics of the war and those who question military conduct.
Earlier, it was reported that an investigation found the Russian military reclassifies missing troops as deserters to obscure battlefield losses and deny families compensation, leaving many relatives without closure or verification mechanisms.
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