Petr Mylnikov is a small business owner and in the past – a manager of the enterprise “Teploseti” (“District heating networks”) in his town. Since 2019 Mr. Mylnikov had been running a Viber chat with a “talking” name: “We Live in Ruins”. In this chat, the concerned citizen would discuss problems facing the region, such as extreme poverty, outdated infrastructure, a lack of interest from the authorities, etc. The beginning of the “special operation” was a painful development for Petr, and he addressed this issue directly in his blog.

A criminal case against Petr was launched in March 2022, but the information about it surfaced only in April. The investigation was triggered by two publications, both from March 5. Mr. Mylnikov shared in his chat some documents about the progress of the “special operation”. These posts were seen by some law enforcement officers, who happened to be members of the “Ruins” chat. On the evening of March 28, when Petr was coming home from work, he was detained and taken to the police station, where he was charged with “disseminating false information about the Russian Army” (article 207.3, part 1).

The trial took place on May 26, 2022, and the court sentenced the man to a fine of 1,000,000 roubles. He became the first Russian citizen to be convicted under article 207.3. An anonymous telegram channel published a video, in which Mr. Mylnikov expresses his remorse. As Petr himself admits, he was asked to record his statement of remorse on video by a Federal Security Service official “for reporting purposes”.