Russian man fined after dreaming about taking a selfie with Volodymyr Zelensky
12 December 2022, 23:19
A Russian man has been fined about £400 for having a dream about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
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Ivan Losev, 26, went on trial in the Siberian city of Chita last week for sharing a description of the dream on Instagram.
Mr Losev, who had also made other posts that criticised the Russian invasion, was fined £30,000 roubles for breaking the law that outlaws criticism of the war. The charge is punishable with up to 15 years in prison.
He told the the Sibir.Realii news website: "I dreamt that I was mobilised and brought to some kind of training camp when all of a sudden the Ukrainian armed forces, led by Zelensky, burst in.
"They tied everyone up and they were going to shoot us. But at that moment, Zelensky passes me and says: 'Oh, I saw your stories on [Instagram], glory to Ukraine!'
Mr Losev said that the Ukrainian president freed him in his dream, - but ordered the Ukrainian troops to shoot "everyone else".
He then asked Mr Zelensky for a selfie, to which the president said "sure!"
Mr Losev said after he made the post, local officials called him to tell him that they believed he was "engaged in discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", and that he had to report to his local police station.
He criticised the case against him as "idiotic".
"I struggle to imagine how a Zabaikalsk FSB officer in his forties re-typed my post with a straight face to add it to the case file. The thought is ridiculous!" he said.
Mr Losev also made other critical posts on Instagram, including asking: "How much is it planned to mobilise there? 300,000? A million? I don't care, this disgrace will not delay the victory of the Ukrainians. The only question is, are you ******** [stupid] to go there?
"Two years probation, yes even 10 years prisons are better than HIMARS flying at [you]", one post read.
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"It is better to send bottles to Ukraine for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, so that they make Molotov cocktails and burn all the Rashists [a derogatory word for Russians that is a pun on the word 'fascist'].
But even though he has fallen foul of the law, Mr Losev said he stood by his position.
"It seems to me that the war is about to end and end not in favour of Russia. I am sure that Ukraine will win,'
"As soon as Ukraine wins, all the people who are now in prison (for 'discrediting the Russian armed forces'), they will either be released or somehow decriminalised.
"And we will not be ashamed to look into the eyes of the world community, the Ukrainians, or ourselves."
