Prominent Russian actress let off the hook

A Moscow court on Wednesday dropped a case against Russian actress Kristina Rasmus over her alleged attempt at discrediting the Russian army on social media, citing a lack of corpus delicti.

The Tverskoy District Court has now terminated all proceedings on the administrative case against Asmus, which was filed late last month.

The TV and theater actress, who is primarily known for her roles in sitcoms, was accused of publicly discrediting Russia’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine in a post on Instagram and faced a maximum punishment of 50,000 rubles ($836) under an administrative article banning the promotion of negative attitudes towards Russia’s armed forces.

On February 24, the day when Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, Asmus posted a picture of a black square with the caption: “Fear and pain. Please stop all this. No to war.” 

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However, as pointed out by the actress’s lawyer, who spoke with the news agency RBK, the post was made before public actions aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces were made an offense.

Accordingly, Asmus’ legal team argued that the Instagram post could not constitute a violation, as there was no law against such messages at the time of posting.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. 

In early March, Russia’s parliament approved a law that imposed a hefty fine or even prison sentence of up to 15 years for intentionally spreading false information about the country’s armed forces.