Posted on 07/08/2022 9:40:01 AM PDT by Zhang Fei
A court in Moscow has sentenced an opposition councillor to seven years in jail for criticising Russia’s military actions in Ukraine, the first prison sentence handed out under the new laws that restrict criticism of the war.
Alexei Gorinov, a deputy at Moscow’s Krasnoselsky district council and trained lawyer, was arrested in April on charges of spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian army.
According to the authorities, Gorinov committed the offence when he and a fellow opposition deputy, Elena Kotenochkina, spoke out against the council’s proposal to hold a children’s drawing contest and a dancing festival despite the war in Ukraine, where Gorinov said “children were dying”.
“I believe all efforts of [Russian] civil society should be aimed only at stopping the war and withdrawing Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine,” Gorinov said during the work meeting, which was recorded on video.
The charges against Gorinov fall under a series of new laws that have been introduced since the start of Russia’s invasion.
Gorinov’s long sentence will be perceived as harsh even in the current political climate in Russia, where authorities have embarked on an unprecedented crackdown on civil society and opposition since the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February.
Human rights groups will worry that Gorinov’s case will be the first in a string of rulings against anti-war figures who are awaiting trial.
“This is clearly a politically motivated ruling aimed at scaring the public into silence,” said Tanya Lokshina, an associate director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch. “The outrageous sentence is evidently meant to discourage Russians to speak up against the war and express any forms of dissent.”
At least 50 people face long-term prison sentences or steep fines for “knowingly spreading false information” about the military
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Ukraine ping
Putin is starting to hand out prison sentences to opponents of his special military operation.
Periodic cleaning house is good.
Cool. Russia is learning from the Ukraine. And the Jan6 Committee.
A pox on them all.
If Biden and democrats had their way, they would imprison the ‘out of control’ SCOTUS members who voted to kill Roe v Wade.
Luckily, we’re still ‘mostly’ under constitutional laws. Democrats are wishing for Moscow-type judicial and political and government systems.
Julian Assange was unavailable for comment...
Not like we doing such here in the US, just saying. /s
Meanwhile golobohomo Churchill outlawed almost a dozen opposition parties.
BoJo the Clown is the first to feel the poisoned bite of The High-Heeled Monkey.
Will the rest of the Brit leadership recognize the problem and get the Zelenskyy monkey off the back of the UK?
Doubtful.
There’s that ‘ol Soviet Union that we all knew and loved...
Notice the similarity in stifling differing opinions.
Admirers of Vlad Putin are admirers of fascism, and would like to bring the same to the USA.
Ukraine already outlawed political parties, so it seems these two countries both suck.
This is the act of a weak leader who knows that his decisions cannot stand the scrutiny of his own people.
Putin is telling us how weak he is with these actions. He is running scared and and his days are few.
That will change once the Democrats get three more Justices on the SCOTUS.
They should be impeached. But it won't happen because we'll never get 67.
Oh no, Zelensky banned 11 pro-Russian/commie parties out of Ukraine's more than 300 registered parties and he also arrested leaders of the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine. What a tragedy!
Oooh, Russia arrested and gave a sentence to one person!
Oh, nos!
The Reality: "More than 15,000 Russians have been arrested in anti-war protests"
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/03/22/more-than-15000-russians-have-been-arrested-in-anti-war-protests
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