Court in Moscow sentences war opponent to prison camp

War criticism

Court in Moscow sentences war opponent to prison camp

Russians who criticize Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine on social networks risk high prison sentences. This time it hit a theater director.

A military court in Moscow sentenced a theater director to eight years in a prison camp because she criticized Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine on a social network. According to Russian media reports, the 43-year-old, the mother of two children and in poor health, was arrested in the courtroom after she had previously been released on conditions. The verdict was issued because the war opponent is said to have spread “false information” about the Russian army and thus discredited the armed forces after the attack on Ukraine.

According to the verdict, the woman had written on the social network VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook: “Your shitty armed forces have already torn half of Ukraine, along with women, children and other peaceful populations, and slaughtered people.” She was therefore also held responsible for comments under her entries in which Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was accused of war crimes and called for his murder.

According to reports, Judge Andrei Pushnikov fell short of the prosecutor’s request, which had pleaded for ten years in a prison camp. The 43-year-old’s statements were quoted in court, according to which she stated that she had made such comments out of shock over the deaths in the war, reported the Kremlin-critical portal “Mediazona”. She later said that she fundamentally respected the Russian armed forces and had not called for Putin to be killed.

Russia began its war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Dozens of Russian opponents of the war have since been sentenced to prison. They are considered political prisoners.