A Russian doctor has been convicted of “promoting fascism” — for sharing the music video for The Cranberries’ anti-war “Zombie.”
Valery Kochnev, a surgeon and aspiring politician who had run for a seat on the Veliky Novgorod City Council as a candidate from the opposition Yabloko party, was found guilty on Tuesday of “displaying extremist symbols” and fined the equivalent of $20, his party said. .
The case revolves around a 2021 post published on Kochnev’s “V Kontakte” social media page — and which prosecutors with the Russian Interior Ministry’s Center for Countering Extremism discovered.
The post was revealed during a review of social media accounts belonging to all Yabloko candidates ahead of local elections, politician Kseniya Cherepanova wrote on Telegram.
“The government in Russia is increasingly using the police not to maintain law and order and public safety, but to stalk and intimidate suspicious people, to carry out political repression,” Cherepanova said.
Russia’s Dr Valery Kochnev was fined the equivalent of $20 after being found guilty of promoting fascism. ProvidedKochnev was charged after police found a music video for The Cranberries’ anti-war song “Zombie” on his social media page.Redferns
Kochnev’s page shared the 1994 “Zombie” music video, which features footage from Nazi Germany in an attack on the horrors of war.
Russian law enforcement officials concluded that the swastika in the clip made Kochnev’s post Nazi propaganda — even though The Cranberries’ song was an anti-war song denouncing violence.
Lawyers for the doctor had asked for a linguistic analysis of the song to be carried out — but a so-called “expert” from the department of internal affairs declared that he had not analyzed the song because it was “in English.” He also admitted that he was not qualified to carry out this kind of work.
Russian authorities accused Kochnev of promoting extremism because the video featured footage depicting Nazi Germany. YouTube / TheCranberriesTV
Kochnev denied even posting it, claiming that his social media account had been repeatedly hacked by cybercriminals – insisting that he only knew it was on his page when he was charged.
Kochnev plans to appeal his conviction, the Yabloko party said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
