Moscow Timiryazevsky District Court March 30 sentenced Mikhail Simonov, 63, to seven years in prison after being found guilty of spreading “false” about the Russian army. Simonov’s two posts on VKontakte served as the basis for the case, in which he wrote about the bombing of Kiev and the Mariupol Drama Theater: “Killing children and women, we sing songs on Channel One. We, Russia, have become atheists. Forgive us, Lord,” and “Russian pilots are bombing children.” “Mediazone” published Simonov’s last word in court.
Your honor, respected court! I understand that at the stage of the preliminary investigation I admitted my guilt, answered all the questions of the investigator, at least those that I understood. Yes, on March 19, 2022, I was at a well-known address, at home. I then ended a difficult two-month shift – I work in the dining car of long-distance trains. At that time, I was leading a rather isolated life, recovering from hard work. Well, coming to his senses, he drank a little too. I had a telephone as a contact, I came across a news article from EuroNews – I have already said that I knew EuroNews before. And in a certain state of impulse, of course, I repeated what was said there.
What impulse was it? The impulse is that people are dying. I have always believed and I still believe that human life is an unconditional value that should become a priority, although in our country they don’t think so. And that’s how I was raised.
I will give a small example from childhood, which I have always remembered. My mother was still a little girl in besieged Leningrad. She told how she carried her already dead parents on a sledge along the Neva to bury them, how she later experienced this terrible Great Patriotic, World War, and hoped that it would be the last war. Such words are still swirling around in my head – from a song, or something like that – “my dear, if there was no war.” Mom said it too.
It was the impulse. For me, it was a technological disaster, maybe even a natural one, like an earthquake – what’s happening in the world, people are dying, a lot of people. And human life should be a priority.
Yes, I posted it on my page in VKontakte. I claim that VKontakte for me was just a repository of my photos, personal, family. I never had any particular conversations there. Perhaps with rare exceptions. The messages I sometimes posted there for myself, I usually deleted them later. How to delete these messages.
I was motivated only by the understanding that human life is priceless. Anyone who died as a result of certain events – not just military, but, as I said, some kind of disaster.
I grew up in a military family. My father was a soldier and gave his life to the army, which was the predecessor of the current Russian army. He was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. So no negative attitude from me [к армии] it’s not possible, it would be like spitting on my father’s grave.
In conclusion, I would like to talk about my health. Unfortunately, the SIZO administration did not provide me with a certificate, although I wrote a request for a certificate from my medical file. He says that a few months ago several of my illnesses got worse suddenly, that a neuropathologist was invited to see me. It is a purely bureaucratic moment, so the court, of course, will not take it into account, but unfortunately I, an elderly man, will have to take my health problems into account, especially when I am serving such a long sentence. requested by the prosecutor.