Russian pensioner fined for trying to shoot down drones with shotgun

A magistrate judge in the village of Yelan, in Russia’s Volgograd region, fined a local pensioner 40,000 rubles for trying to shoot down drones on his own. The independent Russian news outlet Verstka uncovered the court’s ruling, issued in July 2026.Court documents show the man tried to shoot down drones flying over his yard with a single-barrel hunting shotgun. He then called 112, reported the incident, waited for police to arrive, showed them the site of the drone’s “presumed crash,” and “voluntarily handed over the hunting shotgun.”Police cited the pensioner for firing a weapon in a place not designated for shooting, under Part 2 of Article 20.13 of Russia’s Administrative Offenses Code. The court found him guilty, fined him, and ordered the shotgun confiscated.The Yelan District Court upheld the magistrate’s ruling.In his appeal, the man said he had fired “out of a reasonable fear for public safety and people’s lives, having assessed the unidentified drones as potential sabotage devices.”The appeals court found no evidence in the case “indicating that his actions were forced or that he faced a danger that could not have been eliminated by other means,” and concluded that he had committed “a gross violation” that “could have caused harm to people’s life and health.”At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.