Moscow student faces charges after joke video about the siege of Leningrad

A Moscow court has charged a student with the “rehabilitation of Nazism” for a video he posted online in which he joked about the daily lives of citizens of Leningrad during the Nazi siege of the city in WWII, the SOVA Research Centre, a nonprofit that focuses on nationalism and xenophobia in Russia, reported on Tuesday.

On 6 August, Yekaterina Mizulina, the head of the Safe Internet League, a body which has grown to become an integral part of Russia’s censorship apparatus, reposted a video recorded by Ilya Kostyakov, a student at the Russian State Social University.

In the video, Kostyakov is seen looking into the camera while a caption reads: “Just think… The people of Leningrad did without bubble tea for 3 years during the siege…” Mizulina called the video “unacceptable” and demanded Kostyakov be subject to legal scrutiny.

The court arrested Kostyakov for 15 days on charges of petty hooliganism on 11 August, according to SOVA. On Monday, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a case against Kostyakov, born in 2005, for the video, the content of which, in its words, “denigrated residents of Leningrad under siege as veterans of the Great Patriotic War”. According to the investigators, Kostyakov posted the video to an unnamed “popular social media network” on or before 5 August. Kostyakov pleaded guilty.

Earlier this week, 21-year-old Vladimir Cherkashchenko was charged with inciting hatred against Russians for posting a number of videos online in which he wished death to soldiers and those who support the war in Ukraine. In that case too, his videos had come to the attention of Mizulina.