A Moscow court sentenced two Russian journalists in absentia on Tuesday to 11 years in prison for spreading “false information” about the army, the Russian Federation Prosecutor’s Office (MP) announced.
Ruslan Leviev and Michael Nacke committed the crime of which they were accused in a video they posted on the YouTube platform in March 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the parliamentarian was quoted as saying by the French agency AFP.
The two defendants have been the subject of an arrest warrant from the Russian authorities since May 2022 and live abroad.
Many critics of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and of President Vladimir Putin’s regime have fled into exile to escape repression in the country.
Ruslan Leviev is the founder of the research group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), known for investigating the activities of the Russian military around the world.
Michael Nacke, a journalist and commentator, currently runs a YouTube channel outside of Russia with over a million subscribers.
In early August, Moscow authorities declared CIT undesirable, which gained notoriety in 2014 for publishing investigations into the involvement of Russian forces in Ukraine.
Following the offensive against Ukraine, on February 24, 2022, Russia introduced a series of criminal measures to punish critics of the regime.
It is prohibited to use the terms “war” or “invasion” in relation to the offensive, officially designated as a “special military operation”, or to accuse the Army of war crimes, among other measures.
As a result, several independent media outlets were forced to suspend their activity or leave the country, and many opponents went into exile or were arrested and sentenced.
One of the most high-profile recent cases is that of historian, journalist and politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason in April after making anti-war speeches.
Kara-Murza, 41, is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience and was close to his opponent Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead in 2015 near the Kremlin, the seat of power in Moscow.
In early August, the main face of Putin’s opposition, Alexei Navalny, a survivor of a poisoning attempt like Kara-Murza, was sentenced to another 19 years in prison for extremism.
Navalny, 47, was already serving an 11-year prison sentence for alleged fraud.
Putin, in power since 2000, accuses his internal critics of being a “fifth column” at the service of Western interests.
Source: TSF
