During the concert, star rock critic Artemy Troitsky presented anti-awards to police officers (in absentia, of course) for epitomizing the very worst of their profession. Now, he’s facing up to two years in jail for just that.

As the Moscow Times reports:

The country’s most prominent music critic faces two years in jail for crossing into public activism and handing an “anti-prize” to a policeman he named the worst cop of the year.

Artemy Troitsky, who was also hit with a fine of 130,000 rubles ($4,600) on Wednesday, told The Moscow Times that he views the case as punishment for his activism but promised not to back down.

The case was opened on a complaint by former traffic policeman Nikolai Khovansky, who was the first to arrive at the site of a fatal road accident involving a LUKoil vice president in February 2010.

Khovansky was also the first to put the blame on the two women killed in the accident, Olga Sidelnikova and Vera Alexandrina, whose Citroen collided with the car of LUKoil vice president Anatoly Barkov on Moscow’s Leninsky Prospekt.

The case sparked much outrage, with media and many citizens accusing the police of covering up for Barkov and his driver. City police, nevertheless, ultimately cleared Barkov and his driver.

Troitsky targeted the police officer during a November show by the rock band DDT, naming him among the recipients of a prize for the worst police officers.

Interestingly, Khovansky’s daughter attended the show, during which DDT frontman Yury Shevchuk also named the year’s best cops.

Khovansky, who has since retired, filed a defamation lawsuit against Troitsky and won the case Wednesday in Moscow’s Gagarinsky District Court.

Troitsky also faces a separate criminal case for insult over the same incident, with a hearing scheduled for May 3, Interfax said. The offense is punishable with prison time.

The 55-year-old critic, known for his ties to Russian rock greats, did not attend the Wednesday hearing, saying he was ill, but he promised to appeal.

He said Khovansky was used by “puppeteers” who sought to punish him. “I believe they are people who don’t like my public activities,” he said by telephone, without elaborating on who might be behind the lawsuit.

“I am not a politician, but I am not the kind of guy who is going to surrender,” Troitsky added. “The more they pressure me, the more I will resist.”

In addition to the campaign against Barkov, Troitsky participated last year in protests against the partial destruction of the Moscow region’s Khimki forest, slated to go in order to make way for a state-backed highway. The protests ended in failure, with the government authorizing the road’s construction in December.

The event is planned to be held on August 22 on Pushkin Square, and the mayor’s office had initially agreed to the event. However, a press release from the mayor’s office on Thursday stated that the organizers had only submitted the paperwork to hold a rally, not a concert.

Organizer Mikhail Shneyder was told by the city’s bureau for event management and safety that there’s no way to hold a rally and a concert at the same time. “You’re announcing all over the place that you’re holding a rally-concert, but that kind of format for an event does not exist. You will not be allowed to hold a concert and set up a covered stage,” Shneyder quoted the bureau as saying.

“I know that that kind of format doesn’t exist,” the organizer explained in response. “The law stipulates just a rally, but it’s for us to decide who is going to appear at our rally and how; if we want, we’ll call on a Buddhist and he’ll arrange 20 simultaneous chess matches.”

Regardless of any legal ambiguities, the organizers plan to go on with the show. Scheduled to be present are the groups DDT, OtZvuki My, Televizor, Padla Bear Outfit, and Barto. Journalist Artemy Troitsky agreed to host the event.

Yury Shevchuk, leader of DDT and an outspoken Kremlin critic, said the band had already purchased tickets to Moscow and was coming to the event for certain.

“Leap frog between the Moscow authorities – that’s a normal affair,” Shevchuk told Kasparov.ru. “We’re going to Moscow with an acoustic lineup and we’ll see there whether or not they’re going to let us play. That’s the kind of weather we have nowadays – either hot or cold.”

Yevgenia Chirikova, leader of the movement to defend the Khimki Forest, insisted that the Moscow authorities had no legal right to ban their event. “I don’t know a single law that would ban setting up a stage for a rally. The authorities’ quibbles are entirely baseless,” she said.

“Let them not allow the people to hear Shevchuk and demonstrate to everyone that they are inflexible and unpopular politicians,” the activist went on. “We have been supported by musicians of the very highest caliber, and a smart civil servant wouldn’t think to bother us.”

The felling of the Khimki Forest began this past July. An expressway from Moscow to St. Petersburg is planned to take its place. Ecologists and activists have spoken out strongly against the project, insisting that it violates the law.

Well-known culture critic Artemy Troitsky said on late Tuesday that Ekho Moskvy radio, widely considered to be one of the only sources of unfettered journalism left in Russia, prohibited him from playing a song by the popular rap group Noize MC on the program Osoboye Mneniye (“Special Opinion”). The song blames Lukoil Vice President Anatoly Barkov as at fault for a fatal car crash in Moscow last month that left two women dead.

Upon speaking with Ekho Moskvy Deputy Director Sergei Buntman, Troitsky was told that he couldn’t play the song because it didn’t fit the station’s format and “we have never had this before.” He also expressed concern that playing the song could result in accusations of copyright violation, since Osoboye Mneniye is broadcast in America and Israel on RTVi television.

When Troitsky told Buntman that the rapper had actually given him a recording of the song complete with all broadcasting rights, Buntman was silent. When Troitsky added that Osoboye Mneniye was a “rotten program,” Buntman responded in outrage and told Troitsky that he would no longer be allowed to host the show. Having other broadcasting duties at the station, Troitsky says that he doesn’t plan to file any complaints but is concerned at the incident.

The car accident in question occurred on February 25 on Moscow’s Gagarin Square, and left 36-year-old driver Olga Aleksandrina and 72-year-old Vera Sidelnikova dead. Barkov and his driver sustained only minor injuries. Police were quick to lay blame for the accident on Aleksandrina, but witnesses have since come forward claiming that Barkov’s armored Mercedes had been driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid a traffic jam. The resulting scandal has brought attention to Moscow residents’ long-held concerns that elite members of Russian society are given free reign by the police to commit gross traffic violations.

As of the time of publication, a YouTube video Noize MC’s song, “Mercedes S 666” has received more than 224 thousand views.

Troitsky’s blog post can be read in Russian by clicking here.