In February 2023, criminal proceedings were initiated against 54-year-old construction worker Sergei Kalalb from the town of Okhotsk (Khabarovsk Territory) for repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian armed forces. The reason for the prosecution was an anti-war video on TikTok posted in a chat, which drew the attention of a local police inspector. A year earlier, Sergey's son Nikita, 32, died in the war in Ukraine. "Someone has to be prosecuted."

Administrative action

In 2020, Sergey Kalalb created a WhatsApp group to chat with his friends and acquaintances. They exchanged jokes, videos, and, as Sergey puts it, "smart thoughts" about politics. In the chat description, Sergey warned that "Putinists and United Russia members have nothing to do in the group."

Gradually, the chat, which initially had thirty people added by Sergey, grew to almost eighty participants. People whom Sergey no longer knew were joining through the invitation link.

In mid-July 2022, the chief of the local police inspectors, Senior Lieutenant Stepan Prikhodko, called Sergey and invited him for a conversation. At the police station, Prihodko informed Sergey about a protocol on "discrediting" the Russian army that had been drawn up under Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Offences Code for discussing the war in Ukraine. The case file contained 378 chat screenshots with videos and statements made by Kalalb from April 23 to June 15.

"There was an informant in the group, some scumbag reported me. I told [the police inspector] that it was unfair," Sergey says. "I went to court, hoping that the judge would support and acquit me. The judge [Oleg Pak] sympathetically nodded and said, 'I understand you perfectly, but I can't do anything. There is this article and someone has to be prosecuted under it.’" In Okhotsk, Sergey was the only person tried for "discrediting" the Russian army.

Kalalb did not plead guilty: at the hearing on August 5, he said he believed that the "special military operation" was a "war against a fraternal nation" and reminded the court about the ban on censorship. As a result, he was fined 30,000 rubles. The regional court upheld the decision.

"The 30,000 ruble fine hit my pocket quite hard – we have no extra money, there are loans [in the family]. I wrote in the group that I had got it in the neck. Some responded. They punished me, but I still haven't changed my opinion," Sergey says.

He did not delete the WhatsApp chat, and political discussions in the group continued.

Before the war

Sergey Kalalb was born in 1968 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. After finishing school, he joined the army to serve in the GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) special forces.

After being discharged in 1988, he enrolled in the Komsomolsk Polytechnic Institute (KNAPI) to study industrial and civil construction. He worked at an aviation plant for a while, but he didn't like it there and became a carpenter on a construction team.

In Komsomolsk, Sergey met his future wife Aksana. In 1989, the couple had a son, Nikita, and they decided to move to Okhotsk, where Sergey's father, journalist Victor Kalalb, lived. However, they divorced after some time and Aksana went back to Komsomolsk with their son. Nikita later graduated from the Military Aviation Academy in Voronezh and was assigned to serve in Simferopol as a contract serviceman.

Sergey says he has always been interested in life in the country. When Putin became president for the first time, Sergey was "happy for him.” Disappointment came in 2011, when Putin, as prime minister, made the so-called "castling" with then-President Dmitry Medvedev.

“I knew something was wrong," Sergey says. “Then I saw that the corruption was on the rise, and he kept fighting it, but couldn’t get rid of it, poor guy.”

The war

Sergey took the war in Ukraine “extremely negatively”. 

“Actually, there is Article 353 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on conducting an aggressive war. It provides for long prison terms [up to twenty years]. Who gave you the right to do this?” he wonders.  “What ‘special military operation’? I served in the GRU special forces, I know how special operations are carried out – they are only carried out by officers, in small groups. These are not large-scale activities that are currently taking place in Ukraine. I opened Wikipedia and looked up the definition of “fascism”. It seems that our president is a real fascist, who is exactly waging a war. I will probably be jailed, but I will not change my opinion. The whole world agrees with me, while it is only those on top that agree with him.”  

The loss of my son

On 6 March 2022, just 10 days after the start of the war, the military helicopter carrying Sergey’s son Nikita was shot down in Ukraine.

“When I learned that, I drank a whole day long. I understand that he as an officer could not disobey the orders of commanders. A year has passed, but I still haven’t recovered,” Sergey says. 

His son was buried in Crimea. He left behind a wife and three sons.

Criminal action

In February 2023, Sergey saw a video on TikTok in which a woman says, “Girls, why are you sending your children to the war? Go to the Ministry of Defense and ask them to remove them from there.” Sergey liked the video and posted it in his group on 21 February 2023. Two days later, he found out that he was involved in a criminal case for repeated “discrediting” of the Russian armed forces. He was informed of it by the same police inspector, Stepan Prikhodko, who incidentally had joined the chat in early 2023. At first, Sergey didn’t take his words seriously. 

At the police station, he said to him, “Stepan, I just expressed my opinion, Article 29 of the Constitution [on the freedom of speech] allows me to do that, can it be that one can suffer for that?” Prikhodko replied, “It’s a good group, I participate in it myself, but you shouldn’t have posted such a video.” 

In late February, Sergey was summoned for interrogation by the Investigative Committee. The court chose a measure of restraint in the form of prohibition to use the Internet. His home was searched, but according to him, “nothing criminal was found.”

The punishment under Part 1, Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which is being incriminated to Kalalb, is a fine of up to 300,000 rubles or deprivation of freedom for up to 5 years. 

"I won’t stand up for this government." 

In answering the question about how the war will probably end, Sergey says: “I don’t know when his [Putin’s] conscience will wake up and he will at least return to the ‘DPR’ borders and won’t go further. It’s hard to predict something. I don’t see any sense in this fratricidal war from either a political or human perspective: people are dying on both sides.” 

When asked whether he considered methods of changing government other than an election to be acceptable, Sergey replies, “I don’t know really. But I definitely won’t stand up for this government. Will I take up arms? Well, that will depend on how it will affect my family, friends, and acquaintances. Has at least one revolution ended bloodlessly? If the government starts engaging in lawlessness, we will have to do the same – and that’s exactly what I wouldn’t want to happen.”