Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the Vanguard of the Red Youth movement and coordinator of the Left Front radical organization, a well-known Russian opposition leader, was sentenced by a Ulyanovsk city court to mandatory work for 240 hours on June 27, 2012. Udaltsov, whose name is increasingly heard in the news, can be safely called a prominent political figure, all the more surprising that the reason for punishment was the beating of a journalist.
The incident occurred on April 21 during an opposition rally in Ulyanovsk, whose participants gathered to protest against the deployment of a transit center for NATO cargo, which protesters call the "NATO base."
After the rally, Udaltsov began talking with reporters, including Anna Pozdnyakova, an activist of the Nashi pro-Kremlin movement. According to her, during an interview when she shot Sergei on a cell phone, he, having learned that she is a supporter of the Young Guard, hit her twice.
At the same time, the girl described that the blows were so strong that the mobile phone fell out of her hands and even the clock flew. Subsequently, Anna Pozdnyakova wrote a statement to the police and confirmed the fact of beating with a medical report, which recorded the fact of beating and concussion. As material evidence, an interview was used, during which Pozdnyakova constantly asked the question: “Sergey, are you hungry?”, To which Udaltsov first answered. After he asked Pozdnyakov not to interfere and move away, it is clear that someone is closing the lens and Anna's screech is heard, after which Sergey’s receding back is visible in the lens.
Udaltsov immediately called the incident a provocation and a lie. According to him, he did not touch the journalist and, in response to her statement, left his own, in which he accused Anna of a false denunciation. An indirect proof of his innocence is the video posted on the Internet, on which the triumphant Pozdnyakova with a watch on her hand, bouncing with joyful excitement, boasts: "Guys, Udaltsov hit me, imagine!" In a rosy and mobile girl with eyes burning with joy, it is difficult to suspect a victim beaten before a concussion, a brain injury did not affect her well-being. It was probably a post-traumatic syndrome.
However, the court did not take into account either this video or Udaltsov’s statement and on June 27 sentenced him in part 1 of Art. 116 of the Criminal Code. Anna Pozdnyakova can sleep peacefully, just like her conscience - a villain who has beaten a journalist and a woman is punished in all fairness of the law.
