A Russian news editor in Siberia was handed an eight-year jail sentence on Friday for publishing important materials on Moscow’s Ukraine offensive, amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent inside Russia.
Sergei Mikhailov, a journalist and editor within the Altai area, was arrested inside weeks of the Kremlin’s 2022 navy marketing campaign, shortly after repressive legal guidelines banning criticism of Russia’s actions in Ukraine had been enacted.
He had printed on-line posts about civilian deaths within the Kyiv suburb of Bucha and in Mariupol.
A courtroom in Gorno-Altaisk sentenced the 48-year-old after discovering him responsible of “knowingly spreading false information” concerning the Russian military.
Prosecutors mentioned he was “motivated by political hatred.”
Mikhailov ran the small on-line opposition social media channel “Listok” in Siberia’s Altai Republic – a area that has despatched many males to Ukraine.
In a courtroom speech earlier this week, Mikhailov defended his reporting and harshly criticized the Kremlin for sending troops to Ukraine.
He mentioned the Russian state narrative of labeling the Ukrainian management as “fascist” had “created a whole virtual universe in the information space, and this fog became stronger and stronger.”
“My publications were aimed at countering this fog, so my readers would not be misled by lies, would not take part in armed conflicts, and would not become murderers or victims, thereby avoiding harm to the brotherly Ukrainian people,” Mikhailov mentioned in an audio of the speech printed by Listok on social media.
More than 1,000 folks have been prosecuted in Russia for criticizing the Russian offensive in opposition to Ukraine because the begin of the battle in February 2022, in line with the monitoring group OVD-Info.
Source: www.dailysabah.com