MOSCOW Student at MGU, Moscow State University Dmitry Ivanov published critical information about Russia’s war in Ukraine last year on his Telegram channel.
Ivanov has been in pretrial detention since June last year, and today the judge Darya Pugacheva read the sentence: 8.5 years in prison. In addition, he was banned from maintaining websites on the internet for four years after his release.
Prosecutor Julija Pravosud had demanded a nine-year prison sentence for Ivanov.
Before the start of the sentence, Ivanov spoke to foreign journalists in the hall.
– You must understand that Russia is not Putin. Tens of millions of Russians oppose this criminal war. Many have relatives in Ukraine and feel their pain, the Mediazona news site wrote.
Opposition politician Ilya Yashinin father Valery Jashin has followed the trial of Dmitri Ivanov.
Valeri Jašin sees clear similarities with his son’s case. Ilja Jašin received an eight and a half year prison sentence in December
– It’s terrible. My wife said the right phrase: déjà-vu. What happened in our trial also happened to Dima Ivanov. Word for word, even the required sentence is the same, Valeri Jašin said at the Meshchansk district court last Thursday.
– Lawsuits in factories to scare the population, Jašin thinks.
The harsh sentences received by Yashin and Ivanov serve as warning examples. Despite the oppressive machinery running at high speed, people still go to individual demonstrations.
Only flowers always appear on the statue of the Ukrainian poet Lesja Ukrainka, even though they are cleaned from there every day.
– There are a lot of normal, good, wise people in Russia, Valeri Jašin says.
The move to distant Izhevsk shocked
At the end of last year, Ilya Yashin was suddenly transferred to a prison in Izhevsk, Udmurtia. Valeri Jašin says that many local people contacted them at that time and offered their help and accommodation.
The purpose of the transfer to Izhevsk remained unclear. Valeri Jašin thinks that the purpose was to tease them as parents, because they had an appointment with their son just before the transfer.
Now Ilya Yashin has been transferred again to Moscow, to Medved pre-trial detention center, so that he can prepare for the plea hearing.
The parents were able to see their son on Monday of last week.
– He is brisk. My mood and physical condition are good, thank God, Valeri describes.
There are three other prisoners in the pre-trial prison cell with Ilja Jašin. Relations with them are normal, there is no hostility and others understand the absurdity of Ilja’s sentence, the father says.
According to him, the staff of the remand prison also treat Ilya normally: he has not been tortured in prison like other opposition politicians, Alexei Navalny.
Watch a video about Alexei Navalny
In Russia, opposition politicians are in great danger of going to prison. I had to mentally prepare myself for the idea, says Valeri Jašin.
– Our son is a professional politician. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science. That’s why we as parents have lived with this for half our lives. We were psychologically prepared for this, Valeri Jašin says.
Still, the length of the sentence came as a relative surprise.
– Nine years since a person has his own opinion.
Valeri Yašin reminds that freedom of speech is guaranteed in the Russian constitution. Therefore, according to him, the article under which Ilya Yashin and now Dmitri Ivanov were convicted is unconstitutional.
In the Russian State Duma, a bill is already moving forward quickly, which will further extend the sentences handed down for smearing the armed forces.
– The purpose is that people would freak out, shut up and only talk to each other in the kitchen, Valeri Jašin says.
– The country is slipping into fascism, if it hasn’t already, unfortunately, says Jašin.
Yashin did not want to betray Nemtsov’s memory
Many opposition politicians and activists have fled the country. The parents discussed the matter with Ilja just before he was arrested in June.
– He said then, look, there is no one left around: either killed, poisoned, in prison or left the country. There are no powerful politicians left in the country, says Valeri Jašin.
The parents might have wished their son would make a different decision.
– As parents, of course… he is our child after all, Valeri Jašin says.
Ilja Jašin presented heavy arguments in favor of staying in the country.
He felt that by leaving the country he would betray the memory of his political ally and friend Boris Nemtsov.
Nemtsov was shot in February 2015 on a bridge near the Kremlin. The person who ordered the murder has not been convicted.
– In addition, a strong argument was that if everyone left, the country would remain and the people who trusted him and traveled with him would remain.
That’s what Dmitri Ivanov said in an interview with Ulkolinja last spring.
– Now that the country of my birth is in such a difficult state, my task is to stay here and somehow fight for its future, its free democratic future, Ivanov said.
Dmitri Ivanov turned to political activism in 2017, when he participated in protests instigated by Alexei Navalny, accusing then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption.
– First of all, there is the moral side: it is hard to look on from the sidelines when you see injustice, when you see that basic principles, political rights and freedoms are being violated, Ivanov said.
In addition, according to Ivanov, there is a rational side: authoritarian rule lowers the standard of living.
Valeri Jašin says that the situation in Russia is getting worse day by day, not only politically but also socially and economically.
– But we live in the hope that everything will change. There is a saying in the Russian language: the night is darkest before dawn. It’s very dark now. We hope that the morning will break soon.
See Ulkolinja’s documentary