Hundreds of Russians are facing charges for speaking out against the war in Ukraine.
A repressive law passed last month banned the spread of negative comments about the military and “misinformation” about the invasion.
One of the people charged under the law is a former police officer who discussed Russiaphone attack. He faces ten years in prison.
There is another Orthodox priest who was fined £320 after posting an anti-war statement on his church’s website and speaking about the suffering of Ukrainians at a service.
Human rights groups say at least 23 people have been targeted on charges of ‘false information’, while 500 others have been heavily fined or fined for insulting the military.
A repressive law passed last month banned the spread of negative comments about the military and “misinformation” about the invasion. Pictured above is a man detained during a protest in Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square last month
In an interview with The Associated Press, Damir Genutdinov, head of the Net Freedom legal aid group that focuses on free speech matters, said ‘this is a huge amount, an unprecedentedly large amount’.
The Kremlin has sought to control the war narrative from the time its troops rolled into Ukraine.
It called the attack a ‘special military operation’ and increased pressure on independent Russian media, which called it a ‘war’ or ‘invasion’, blocking access to several news sites whose coverage deviated from the official line.
Widespread arrests have also stifled anti-war protests, turning them from a daily event in big cities like Moscow and St.
But in various Russian cities there are reports of police detaining lone picketers almost daily and even benign action has led to arrests.
The Kremlin has sought to control the war narrative from the time its troops rolled into Ukraine. A Ukrainian soldier is shown holding an anti-tank weapon in front of a destroyed tank in Irpin, north of Kyiv last month
A man was detained in Moscow after standing next to a World War II memorial, which Kyiv says, for the city’s heroic stand against Nazi Germany, and holding a copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace Happened.
Another meat producer was organized to hold a package of sliced ham from Miratorg, with the second part of the name crossed out, so it was read Mir – peace in Russian.
Former police officer Sergei Klokov was detained after discussing the war with his friends over the phone. His wife told the Meduza news site that in casual conversation at home, Mr Klokov, who was born in Irpin near Kyiv and whose father still lived in Ukraine when Russian troops invaded, condemned the invasion.
He was accused of spreading false information about the Russian armed forces and facing up to 10 years in prison.
Ion Burdin, a Russian Orthodox priest in a village about 185 miles northeast of Moscow, was charged 35,000 for ‘discrediting the Russian armed forces’ after posting an anti-war statement on his church’s website and talking A fine of the ruble (£320) was imposed. To a dozen congregations during a service about the pain of those who died in Ukraine.
And another court ruled against Moscow student Dmitry Reznikov for displaying a blank piece of paper with eight asterisks that could stand for No to War in Russian—a popular chant by protesters.
‘This is a theater of the absurd,’ said his lawyer, Oleg Filatchev.