Dmitry Semenov is a journalist for Open Russia (an independent media outlet), a human rights advocate, and an activist who frequently organizes rallies in his native Tsivilsk City. On January 29, 2015, he was charged with incitement of extremism for a re-post of a photo of Dmitry Medvedev (Russia’s Prime Minister) on V-Kontakte (Russia’s largest social media network). The photo was a caricature of Medvedev wearing a traditional Caucasus hat with some Arab text in the background and a statement at the bottom of the photo that read: “Death to Russian vermin.” Semenov argued that he simply re-posted an article and that V-Kontakte automatically tagged the allegedly extremist photo in his post. He argued that he had no control over the photo tag and that he had no intention of re-posting the photo. The court of first instance found Semenov guilty of publicly inciting extremism and fined him. The appellate court upheld Semenov’s verdict but granted him amnesty. Amnesty is available to all first time offenders per the order of President Putin to commemorate the anniversary of the end of WWII. Some of the information in this report was derived from secondary sources. Global FoE could not identify official legal and government records on the case and information on the case was derived from secondary sources. Global FoE notes that media outlets may not provide complete information about this case. Additional information regarding legal matters will be updated as an official source becomes available.