Evgenij Kruglov was free and out with his colleagues in the forest, when four police cars appeared. He was taken into custody on the spot and driven to another region, where he was served with suspicion of crime. The crime was stated to be discrediting the Russian army.
The reason was that he shared a post on social media about how civilians are being killed in Mariupol and Butja.
– I had an open profile. It was probably not so smart given the circumstances at the moment, says Evgenij, who on a daily basis works as an archaeologist in Oms in south-western Siberia.
If Evgenij is convicted, he will be one of more than 3,000 Russians who have so far been convicted under the new laws that Russia adopted after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
Hear Evgenij talk about the situation in Russia in the clip above.
New law
Just over a week after the war in Ukraine broke out, the Russian Duma voted through the new law that makes it illegal to “discredit” the Russian army and spread “false information” or “fakes”.
The new law is just one in a series of repressive measures taken by the Russian state in recent years to curb all opposition. In the past, the law on “foreign agents” has forced several independent media outlets and organizations, such as VTimes and Memorial, which work with human rights, to strike back.
With the new law, the last free media from Russia disappeared, for example the TV channel Dozhd and the radio channel Echo Moscow, and so also a large part of the opposition within society.
Because if you are guilty of violating the law, and it can be about anything from writing quotation marks around the word “special operation” to wearing blue and yellow clothes, you risk a hefty fine – or imprisonment.
“Against the Russian Constitution”
On July 8, the deputy of the Krasnoselsky district in Moscow, Aleksei Gorinov, was sentenced to seven years in prison. His crime was that at a council meeting, which was also recorded, he did not want to participate in a vote on whether the district should organize a drawing competition for children in celebration of Victory Day on May 9.
– How can there be talk of drawing competitions for children when children die every day in Ukraine? asked the member, going on to say that every effort should be made to get the Russian troops out of Ukrainian territory.
Gorinov was convicted of spreading “false information” about the Russian army.
– This goes against both the Russian constitution and all international laws and regulations, says Daria Korolenko, lawyer and analyst at the organization OVD-Info, which works to help those arrested under the new laws.
Read more about the work of the organization OVD-Info here.