Kabardino-Balkaria resident fined for video on social media

The Nalchik City Court fined local resident Elena Bankova for discrediting the Russian army.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, a previously deaf-mute resident of Kabardino-Balkaria was fined for discrediting the army because of a video in a messenger. Deaf-mute since childhood, a third-group disabled person, was interrogated in court with the help of a sign language interpreter. He told the court that the video was sent to him, and he did not assume that it contained discrediting of the Russian army, since he could not listen to the "negative comments" in the video.

On August 19, 2025, the Nalchik City Court considered a case of an administrative offense under Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation1.

"Materials The cases showed that on June 24, 2025, together with the employees of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, it was established that citizen B. posted a video with the content “I am for Ukraine! I will kill everyone who is against Ukraine!”, thereby committing public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and its citizens, maintaining international peace and security,” the press service of the Nalchik City Court reported today on its VKontakte page.

When sentencing her, it was taken into account that she was being brought to administrative responsibility for the first time and was not officially employed. No circumstances aggravating administrative responsibility were established. Elena Bankova admitted her guilt and asked not to be severely punished. Following the hearing, she was sentenced to a fine of 30,000 rubles, the department clarified.