The police initiated a criminal case of defamation against businessman and blogger from Belgorod, Andrey Malikov, due to a post in his Telegram channel, reported the publication «Fonar» with reference to the decision to initiate the case.
The victim in this case is the former vice-governor of the Belgorod region, Vladimir Bazarov, who oversaw the construction sector.
As stated in the decision, an «unidentified person» intentionally spread knowingly false statements in the Telegram channel «Malikov», «realizing the public danger and illegality of their criminal actions, foreseeing the inevitability of socially dangerous consequences and desiring their occurrence, knowingly aware of the unreliability of the information they spread». The post was recognized as damaging to the honor and dignity of the acting deputy governor of the Kursk region. In the post itself, the blogger wrote that Vladimir Bazarov was detained and taken into custody.
As reported by the publication «Abireg», recently, four Belgorod officials filed defamation claims against Malikov — Bazarov (in February 2025, he left the regional government), Minister of Public Communications Oksana Tarantova, Minister of Finance Natalia Sharolapova, and Minister of Culture Maxim Shaposhnikov.
Malikov stated that he considers the events as pressure on independent journalism and an attempt to limit the discussion of pressing issues in the region.