A Moscow region court on Friday sentenced a musician and environmental activist to six years in prison for posting three social media posts criticizing Russian attacks in Ukraine.
Alexander Bakhtin, 51, from Mytishchi, a Moscow suburb, was arrested in March 2023 and charged with spreading “false information” about the Russian military, an accusation regularly used to dissent voices from the official version of the conflict in Russia by silencing the authorities. Ukraine, caused by the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022.
“Alexander has been sentenced to six years in prison and is not allowed to manage websites for three years”told AFP Andrei Shchetinin, one of his friends present at the audience.
Bakhtin will also be required to consult a psychiatrist while detained in a penal colony, according to the verdict, which was also confirmed by Russian NGO specialist OVD-Info.
In March and April 2022, Bakhtin had published three posts on the Russian social network VKontakte denouncing the military campaign in Ukraine – officially dubbed a “special military operation” – calling for civilian casualties and directly implicating President Vladimir Putin.
Shortly before the verdict was handed down, the prosecutor asked for eight years in prison for Bakhtin.
After the verdict was announced, Alexander Bakhtin yelled at the judge: “Damn, [Maria] Loktionova!” said witnesses interviewed by AFP.
According to the Russian NGO OVD-Info, more than 20,000 people have been arrested in Russia in protests against the conflict in Ukraine and hundreds more are the subject of legal proceedings.
Also this week, Russian science fiction writer Dmitry Glukhovski, 44, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for questioning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on social media.
The author of the “bestseller” “Metro 2033,” which inspired a popular video game, has been found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian military, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
Glukhovski, who lives outside Russia, has been described by Moscow as a “foreign agent”.
“As a year ago, I am absolutely convinced that this war is as disastrous for Russia and our people as it is murderous and destructive for a country I love: Ukraine,” wrote Dmitry Glukhovski in February, on the occasion of the passage of the first year since the beginning of the conflict.
The writer has also repeatedly expressed his support for the Kremlin’s main opponent, Alexei Navalny, who was sentenced last week to another 19 years in prison for extremism after a closed trial.
Navalny, 47, who was previously sentenced to nine years in prison, will have to serve his sentence in a “special regime” prison, i.e. one of the penitentiaries with the most sinister reputation in Russia, usually reserved for the most dangerous criminals and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Earlier this month, Russian justice convicted two citizens for activities in support of Ukraine, including reports condemning the military offensive against the neighboring country.
In a first case, the Lomonossov District Court (in the northwestern region of Leningrad) sentenced Dmitri Skourikhine, a businessman, to one and a half years in prison for repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian army.
Skourikhine, a father of five daughters, “held a coherent and implacable oppositional and anti-war stance for many years and therefore faced pressure and repression,” according to the non-governmental organization Memorial, which considers him a “political prisoner”.
In the second case, the regional court for the Kursk region, on the border with Ukraine, sentenced a 19-year-old to six years in prison for “treason”.
Source: DN
