Russian Court Fines Pensioner for Liking YouTube Videos

A Russian court fined a 72-year-old Ukrainian pensioner 30,000 rubles ($390) for “discrediting the army” by liking videos on YouTube, according to the independent Russian media outlet Verstka on Monday,

The court in the town of Kovdor, Murmansk Oblast, found that pensioner Vasily Yovdy, a Ukrainian citizen with permanent residence in Russia, had left “approving comments in the form of reactions – likes” under videos which he watched whilst at his own residence.

The ruling did not specify what videos he engaged with, but noted that two of them had been created by “foreign agents.”

One of them discussed the assassination of chemical weapons chief general Igor Kirillov, who was killed on the streets of Moscow by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter in December 2024.

The “likes” were discovered when FSB agents inspected Yovdy’s phone, discovering 139 “liked” videos on his private YouTube account. Despite this, the court classified the actions as “public” and levied a steep fine.

According to Verstka, this is likely the first time anybody has been fined for “discrediting” the army as a result of reacting to videos on YouTube.

Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the Russian human rights NGO First Department, told the outlet: “The court also came up with an interesting construct here: a comment in the form of a like.”

“I do not consider a like in itself to be a public action aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces. The person did not express any personal opinion or disseminate any information.”

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Last week, it was reported that a 22-year-old Russian man had been fined for allegedly spreading “LGBT propaganda” after posting an image of the legendary rock band Queen dressed in women’s clothing.

On Tuesday, Russian news outlet Mediazona reported that a Russian man had been fined 50,000 rubles ($650) for “discrediting the military” by playing a Ukrainian song in his own car.