The list of Kremlin critics sentenced to long prison terms is growing rapidly.
Perhaps the most high-profile case in recent years is opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who, after being poisoned and receiving treatment abroad, was imprisoned in Russia in 2021. He is now serving a sentence of at least nine years.
Last year, journalist Ivan Safronov was sentenced to 22 years in prison after writing articles about the Russian defense industry.
In December, well-known Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for speaking out critically about the war in Ukraine and the massacre by Russian forces in Butja.
Siberian journalist Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced in January to six years after reporting on Russia’s bombing of the theater in Mariupol.
At the end of March, The Wall Street Journal’s Russia correspondent Evan Gershkovich was arrested, accused of espionage on behalf of the United States by the Russian security service FSB. On April 18, a court in Moscow decided that the American should remain in custody until his trial at the end of May.