In one other signal of Moscow’s punishing crackdown on those that query its conflict in Ukraine, the 69-year-old veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov was detained this week on fees of “repeatedly discrediting the armed forces”.
If convicted, he might serve as much as three years in jail.
Orlov co-chaired Memorial, Russia’s main human rights organisation, which has chronicled abuses from the Soviet period to the current till it was outlawed two years in the past. Even after its closure, the organisation, together with Orlov, carried on working beneath a unique title.
“The battle for peace has turn out to be against the law and naturally, [we] are very frightened for Oleg,” Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of Memorial, informed Al Jazeera.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine final 12 months, the Kremlin has tightened the screws on critics.
Based on the human rights monitor OVD-Data, a minimum of 482 folks have been charged beneath Russia’s strict new wartime censorship legal guidelines. Some 136 have been despatched to jail.
Right here, we check out 12 different notable instances over the previous 13 months.
Alexey Gorinov: Moscow councillor who requested, ‘Do you continue to want this conflict?’
At a council assembly in March 2022, Moscow Councillor Alexey Gorinov and a fellow deputy, Elena Kotenochkina, spoke out in opposition to a proposal to carry a youngsters’s drawing contest and dancing competitors whereas Ukrainian “youngsters had been dying”.
Gorinov was charged with the brand new crime of spreading “faux information” concerning the conflict in Ukraine and was the primary to be imprisoned for it. Gorinov didn’t plead responsible, as an alternative holding up an indication within the dock saying: “Do you continue to want this conflict?” He was sentenced to seven years.
Kotenochkina escaped arrest by fleeing the nation.
Ilya Yashin: Navalny ally who dared to discuss Bucha
Ilya Yashin, a Moscow councillor, ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny and one of many few outstanding Russian opposition figures to not go away the nation, was handed eight and a half years in jail over his YouTube stream during which he mentioned alleged atrocities carried out by Russian troopers within the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
Since beginning his sentence in December, he has continued to talk out by means of letters and statements launched by means of his attorneys, emphasising that not all Russians are accountable for the bloodshed in Ukraine.
Vladimir Kara-Murza: Nemtsov affiliate who denounced the invasion
One other Russian opposition determine who refused to relocate is United Kingdom-educated Vladimir Kara-Murza, an in depth affiliate of assassinated opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and the exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Kara-Murza was jailed in April final 12 months after being accused of treason over a speech he made overseas denouncing the invasion – an offence punishable by 25 years.
Kara-Murza survived two alleged poisoning makes an attempt in 2015 and 2017, which left him affected by a nerve situation known as polyneuropathy. His well being deteriorated behind bars and just lately, he has been too in poor health to attend court docket. His trial is constant.
Maria Ponomarenko: Journalist who deplored the Mariupol air assault
Journalist Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced to 6 years in jail by a court docket in Barnaul, Siberia, for posting on social media concerning the assault on the Mariupol theatre by Russian planes in February final 12 months, during which lots of of civilians are believed to have perished. She was additionally banned from working as a reporter for 5 years.
Earlier than the decision, she stated in court docket: “Attacking your neighbour is against the law.”
The phrase “youngsters” had been scrawled in large letters on the bottom exterior the theatre in Ukraine’s Donetsk area within the hope it could deter such an assault.
A court docket sentenced journalist Maria Ponomarenko to 6 years in jail for her submit concerning the air strike on the Drama Theater in #Mariupol
She was discovered responsible of “fakes concerning the military”. pic.twitter.com/4ev7qEtuUN
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) February 15, 2023
The mom of two younger youngsters, Ponomarenko’s attorneys have reported her struggling extreme psychological well being issues whereas imprisoned and accused the authorities of psychological torture.
Alexandra Skochilenko: Grocery store activist going through 10 years in jail
Alexandra (or Sasha for brief) Skochilenko is a 32-year-old artist, cartoonist and musician from Saint Petersburg in addition to the writer of the favored Guide About Melancholy, which tries to de-stigmatise psychological sickness.
In April final 12 months, Sasha was accused of switching value tags in her native grocery store with small playing cards with info on the conflict in Ukraine, together with the loss of life toll within the Mariupol theatre. For this motion, she could lose as much as 10 years of her life in jail.
Russian artist Alexandra Skochilenko is at present on trial, accused of spreading “faux information” concerning the Russian military.
In March, she changed value tags at a neighborhood grocery store with statements concerning the Ukraine conflict.
Right here’s what the Russian authorities take into account “faux information”: pic.twitter.com/oPhe1f4ddv
— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) February 17, 2023
Sasha’s well being deteriorated whereas being detained and awaiting trial. She has coeliac illness and jail authorities have refused her appropriate meals, rights teams have stated.
Alexander Martynov and Lyudmila Razumova: Married couple accused of ‘faux information’
In March 2022, Alexander Martynov and Lyudmila Razumova, a married couple from the area of Tver, had been accused of spreading “faux information” about Russia’s “navy operation” in Ukraine of their posts on social media.
A court docket in Tver sentenced husband and spouse Alexander Martynov and Lyudmila Razumova to jail for anti-war, anti-Putin graffiti (“vandalism”) and sharing “disinformation” on social media — in complete, 6.5 years for Martynov and seven years for Razumova. https://t.co/6JcNkLGrHP pic.twitter.com/Xof3Y80ExE
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 18, 2023
Later, they had been additionally charged with vandalism for supposedly leaving anti-war and anti-Putin inscriptions in a number of villages. On March 17 of this 12 months, Martynov was given six and a half years, whereas Razumova obtained seven. Razumova was reportedly held in solitary confinement for many of her pre-trial detention.
Artyom Kamardin: Poet allegedly overwhelmed by Russian police
At a Moscow rally in September final 12 months, poet and activist Artyom Kamardin learn out an anti-war poem ending with the road, “Glory to Kievan Rus, Novorossiya – suck!” – utilizing the historic phrases for Ukraine’s capital and a time period from days of the Russian Empire that Moscow makes use of for the world of southeastern Ukraine it’s attempting to annex, respectively.
Poets Artyom Kamardin, Yegor Shtovba & Nikolai Dayneko detained after taking part in a poetry studying session important of Putin’s navy invasion to Ukraine resist 10 years in jail
Anti-war activist Artyom Kamardin was allegedly overwhelmed & raped with a barbell by riot cops pic.twitter.com/mYd5J13C78— Mikhail Khodorkovsky (English) (@mbk_center) March 21, 2023
Days later, Moscow police stormed into the condo Kamardin shared together with his girlfriend, Alexandra Popova, and one other activist. Based on Amnesty Worldwide, Popova stated police beat and violated Kamardin with a dumbbell earlier than forcing Popova to look at a video of the act. She additionally claimed that police super-glued stickers to her face and threatened to rape her. A clip later circulated on Telegram of the bruised and battered Kamardin apologising for his phrases.
Kamardin and his housemates have since been charged with inciting hatred in opposition to the Donetsk and Luhansk “Peoples’ republics” – the 2 separatist statelets in Ukraine run by pro-Russia rebels – which might go away them imprisoned for as much as six years.
Dmitry Ivanov: Moscow maths scholar who posted about alleged mass executions
A arithmetic scholar at Moscow State College, Dmitry Ivanov had been concerned in protests and opposition circles for years.
On March 7, he was sentenced to eight and a half years for posting on Telegram about alleged Russian misdeeds in Ukraine, together with Russian assaults on civilian infrastructure and mass executions within the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Irpin.
Daniil Frolkin: The soldier who confessed to conflict crimes
Daniil Frolkin is neither a liberal peacenik, neither is he now pacing up and down his cell, questioning the way it all went fallacious. Frolkin is a Russian soldier who had served within the occupying forces in Ukraine.
#Russian occupier Daniil Frolkin, who confessed to killing a civilian in #Ukraine, obtained a 5.5-year suspended sentence in Russia for spreading “fakes concerning the military.”
This was reported by the publication “Essential tales”. The prosecution requested for Frolkin 6 years of actual… pic.twitter.com/O1jHECGNgV
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 16, 2023
Final 12 months, he informed journalists he had taken half in conflict crimes, together with looting and executing civilians, whereas his unit occupied the village of Andriivka, close to Kyiv.
This March, a Russian navy court docket punished his candour with a suspended five-year sentence.
Vladimir Rumyantsev: Radio fanatic who broadcast anti-war commentary
Vladimir Rumyantsev, a 61-year-old radio fanatic, broadcast classical music with a pair of low-power FM transmitters from his condo in Vologda, 500km (310 miles) north of Moscow.
The sign of his unofficial pirate station, Radio Vovan, barely reached the neighbouring buildings.
However after February 24 final 12 months, Rumyantsev rebroadcast commentary from journalists and conflict critics. This earned him a go to from the Federal Safety Service (FSB), which additionally discovered he had posted anti-war movies to social media. In December, he was handed three years in a jail colony.
Yevgeny Roizman: Ex-mayor who ‘discredited’ Russia’s armed forces
Yevgeny Roizman is a well-liked, tough-talking, ex-mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest metropolis, Yekaterinburg, within the Ural mountains.
He had earned his popularity as a person of the folks by main a vigilante motion in opposition to drug sellers. Identified for his blunt, no-nonsense type, Roizman attacked proponents of the conflict briefly, snappy and infrequently obscenity-filled on-line posts.
Roizman was positioned beneath investigation in August final 12 months after repeatedly being fined for “discrediting” the Russian armed forces.
Repeat offenders, comparable to Roizman, danger as much as three years in jail.
Till then, he’s beneath de facto home arrest – however it’s not his first conflict with the regulation. In 1981, as a tearaway youth, he served a brief stint for theft, fraud and weapons fees.