The Russian TV personality and blogger who organized a controversial celebrity “nearly naked” party in December has been fined $542 for “discrediting” the Russian military.
Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court found Anastasia Ivleeva guilty of “public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” and issued a 50,000-ruble fine, according to the Moscow court system’s Telegram channel.
A repeat offense within one year is punishable by imprisonment for up to seven years.
The independent news outlet Mediazona reported that authorities had filed a report against Ivleeva in March 2023.
According to the news outlet Rusnews, the criminal case centers around Ivleeva’s March 1, 2022, Instagram post in which she called for Russian-Ukrainian talks to end the military conflict.
Ivleeva’s defense argued that the statute of limitations had expired and said it planned to appeal the verdict.
Ivleeva, who denies the charges, did not attend the court hearing.
Russian courts have fined and jailed several activists under the wartime censorship laws of “discrediting” the army and spreading “fake news” about it in the more than two years since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Ivleeva was hit with two separate billion-ruble lawsuits for causing “moral suffering” by organizing the star-studded “nearly naked” party on Dec. 21. She and other celebrities apologized and were pressed to perform pro-war acts following the private event.
In March, Ivleeva announced that she planned to vote for President Vladimir Putin’s re-election that month.
She is not known to have previously weighed in on political issues apart from voicing sympathy for jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in the past.
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