# Dmitry Talantov

Dmitry Nikolayevich Talantov (born 29 December 1960) is a Russian lawyer, specialist in criminal law and criminal procedure, attorney-at-law, President of the Bar Association of the Udmurt Republic of the Russian Federation. The first Russian lawyer convicted under Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (dissemination of knowingly fake information about the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation). The criminal case of Dmitry Talantov was widely covered in media. The Memorial Human Rights Centre recognised Dmitry Talantov as a political prisoner. Amnesty International recognised him as a prisoner of conscience.

## Biography

Dmitry Talantov was born on 29 December 1960, graduated from a specialised mathematics school, then Udmurt State University, with a law degree. In the 1980s, he started his career as a lawyer, worked as a judge for several years in the late 1980s, then returned to the bar again. Lawyer, President of the Bar Association of the Udmurt Republic since 2002. Resident of Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic. Married, wife Olga, a lawyer. In August 2021, Talantov became the lawyer for journalist Ivan Safronov, who was charged with treason, after Safronov's previous lawyer, human rights activist and lawyer Ivan Pavlov, faced harassment and threats of disbarment because of his human rights activism.

## Charge under Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Article 207.3 ‘Public dissemination of knowingly fake information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the execution by state bodies of the Russian Federation of their powers, the provision of assistance by volunteer formations, organisations or persons in the performance of tasks assigned to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation or the National Guard troops of the Russian Federation’, under which Dmitry Talantov was charged, was introduced by Federal Law of 04.03.2022 N 32-FZ. Article 207.3 provides as follows
1. Public dissemination, under the guise of reliable reports, of knowingly fake information containing data on the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens, to maintain international peace and security, or on the exercise by state bodies of the Russian Federation of their powers outside the territory of the Russian Federation for the said purposes, as well as containing data on the provision by volunteer formations, organisations or persons of assistance in the performance of tasks entrusted to them by the Russian Federation shall be punishable by a fine in the amount of seven hundred thousand to one and a half million roubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of one year to eighteen months, or by corrective labour for a term of up to one year, or by compulsory labour for a term of up to five years, or by deprivation of liberty for the same term. 2. The same act committed: a) by a person using his official position; b) by a group of persons, by a group of persons by prior conspiracy or by an organised group; c) with the artificial creation of evidence for the prosecution; d) for selfish motives; e) on the grounds of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred or enmity, or on the grounds of hatred or enmity against a social group, shall be punishable by a fine in an amount of from three million to five million roubles, or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of three to five years, or by compulsory labour for a term of up to five years. 3. The acts envisaged by parts one and two of this article, if they have entailed grave consequences, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of up to five 3. shall be punished by imprisonment for a term of ten to fifteen years with deprivation of the right to hold certain posts or to engage in certain activities for a term of up to five years.
Thus, Art. 207.3 of Russian Criminal Code punishes a non-violent offence, the punishment for which is comparable in time and severity to such offences as murder and robbery. Dmitry Talantov received 7 years in prison for several Facebook posts.The prosecution requested 12 years' imprisonment for Dmitry Talantov.

### Contectst of Adopting of the Art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Criminal liability for fakes about the Russian army was introduced against the backdrop of Russia's armed invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This article is in force in the wording of the Federal Laws of 25.03.2022 N 63-FZ, 18.03.2023 N 58-FZ, 25.12.2023 N 641-FZ, i.e. it was amended twice during the first year after its adoption.

### Features of the Accusation of Fakes About the Army

Talantov's Facebook post with a photo of a man standing on Red Square with a placard ‘Ukraine - peace. Russia - sanity, horror, shame, repentance. Putin - hell.’ Dmitry Talantov captioned it:
‘And how can it be different after the photos and videos from Kharkiv, Mariupol, Irpen, Bucha???? This is no longer fascism - these are extreme Nazi practices! If after this the majority of my compatriots support the murderer Pu and his gang - I personally refuse to recognise them as human beings. People have the quality of compassion. And these people are just stupid and evil scum’. As it became known from the case of Dmitry Talantov, the application of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation assumes an unrestricted nature of interpretation by the prosecuting authorities with regard to the causal link and elements of the offence, i.e. legal qualification is carried out outside the traditional categories of guilt and causal link in Russian criminal law. Dmitry Talantov's lawyers referred to the fact that the position of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation on these issues (since Talantov was accused of disseminating fake information contrary to the official data of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation) was not made public at the time of Dmitry Talantov's Facebook posts and could not have been known to Talantov. In the court hearing, Dmitry Talantov stated in this regard:
How could I make knowingly fake, discrediting statements that do not correspond to the information of the Ministry of Defence, if the positions of the Minestry of Defence have not been published yet? It's time-stamped. What is that supposed to mean? Talantov indicated in the criminal proceedings that none of his text materials, for which he is being held criminally liable, contained any information, including knowingly false information, about the use of the Russian Armed Forces on the territory of Ukraine.

### Denunciations on Dmitri Talantov

Talantov's criminal prosecution began after blogger Roman Skomorokhov posted screenshots of Talantov's Facebook posts on the Military Review website on 12 April and promised to write appeals to the Prosecutor General ‘s Office and the FSB Department of Udmurtia. Earlier, Talantov was charged with administrative proceedings for ‘discrediting’ the Russian armed forces for a post in which he wrote that supporters of war have no place in the bar. The administrative case was initiated following a denunciation by lawyer Violetta Volkova

## Constitutionality of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code

According to Memorial, this article contradicts both the Russian Constitution and international obligations of the Russian Federation, as well as basic principles of law. A number of prominent Russian lawyers have called (in another criminal case under the same article against municipal deputy Gorinov) for Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code to be repealed as unconstitutional, stating in their appeal: Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code is completely inconsistent with the rules of the Constitution - in particular, its Articles 13 (recognising ideological and political diversity as the basis of Russia's constitutional order), 28 (freedom to choose, have and disseminate one's beliefs and act in accordance with them), 29 (freedom of thought and speech; prohibition of coercion to renounce one's beliefs; prohibition of censorship), 54 (prohibition of arbitrary criminal prosecution). ...Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code, as well as Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, which prohibit ‘public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces’, are explicitly aimed at and used to suppress criticism and free competition of opinions about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the policies pursued by the state. In essence, they are a reincarnation of the worst spawns of the Soviet repressive apparatus: criminal articles for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, as well as the dissemination of deliberately false fabrications defaming the Soviet state and social order. A group of lawyers and municipal deputies from Moscow also applied to check the constitutionality of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in relation to complaints about administrative liability indicated that 'The introduction of administrative liability for defamation during a military operation cannot be doubted'.

## Implications for the Legal Profession in Russia

On 29 June 2022, in justifying the arrest, Judge Sergei Khomyakov stressed that Talantov was a lawyer and therefore knew the intricacies of the law enforcement system and could ‘continue criminal activity’ or go into hiding using his experience as a lawyer. Thus, a precedent has been set in Russia, according to which the profession of a lawyer is one of the additional grounds for selecting a preventive measure such as arrest instead of a non-custodial measure, since the profession of a lawyer involves knowledge of the law enforcement system.

## Campaign in Support of Dmitry Talantov

UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Russian Federation Mariana Katzarova called for the acquittal of Dmitry Talantov. She noted that Talantov should be immediately released and any charges against him dropped, as such actions as non-violent expression of one's own opinion or dissent against the war are protected under international human rights law. Criminalisation of such actions under the so-called ‘military censorship’ law, the sole purpose of which is to silence dissent in Russia, violates international human rights law and should be urgently repealed. Similar demands were made by the European Parliament, the International Association of Russian Advocates, the Russian Helsinki Group, Amnesty International, and the Human Rights Commission of the AP SPB. The International Bar Association (IBA) also made a statement that Dmitry Talantov should be released immediately The Pet Shop Boys also called for the release of Dmitry Talantov.

## The Case of Ivan Safronov

At the time the criminal case was initiated, Dmitry Talantov was a lawyer for Ivan Safronov, an adviser to the head of Roscosmos and a former journalist, who is charged with high treason. According to the FSB version, Safronov passed to Western intelligence agencies information on Russia's military and technical co-operation with African countries, as well as on the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in the Middle East. Dmitry Talantov became involved in the criminal proceedings of Ivan Safronov after the advocate status of lawyer Ivan Pavlov, who had previously defended Safronov, was suspended, and the lawyer was recognised as an foreign agent and later instituted criminal proceedings against him.