Opposition councilor Aleksei Gorinov criticized the war in March. The judge considered that he had defamed the Russian armed forces. The Fake News Act aims to suppress anti-war sentiments.
In Russia, a court has sentenced an opposition city councilor to seven years in prison under the so-called fake news law.
Judge Olesya Mendeleeva considered the city councilor of Moscow’s Krasnoselsk district Alexei Gorinov slandering the Russian armed forces.
– This was decided in advance, Gorinov said about the verdict.
As you know, this is the first time when an actual prison sentence is given based on the law. Previous convictions have been fines or probation.
Gorinov is also the first elected opposition politician to be charged under the law.
Gorinov was arrested in April after criticizing the Russian war at a city council meeting.
At the court hearing, in the glass-walled defendant’s booth, Gorinov held up a sign that read: “Do you still need this war?” The courtroom guard tried to cover the sign with his hands until Gorinov himself put it aside.
Opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza described what happened on his Twitter account as a metaphor for everything that is happening in Russia now. He himself is being prosecuted under the same fake news law.
The fake news law was enacted after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February. In practice, the law amounts to war censorship and has been used to suppress all forms of anti-war expression.
Dozens of criminal charges have already been brought on the basis of the Fake News Act. The law allows for a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
An anti-war speech in the council led to prosecution
Gorinov criticized Russia’s military actions in Ukraine at the city council meeting in March. At the meeting, he questioned the proposal to organize a children’s drawing competition, when at the same time children are dying every day in the war in Ukraine. Gorinov said that Russia has turned into a fascist state.
Another councilor also expressed criticism Yelena Kotenochkina. Similar charges have been brought against Kotenochkina, but she managed to leave Russia. He has been ordered to prison in absentia.
The 60-year-old Gorinov spoke about the war and not the special operation and the deaths of Ukrainian children in the war. The judge announced that these do not correspond to the official announcements of the Russian Ministry of Defense. So the judge found Gorinov guilty of defaming the Russian armed forces.
According to the judge, Gorinov took advantage of his official position and his motive was political hatred.
“The fastest means of dehumanization”
In his statement before the verdict, Gorinov continued to oppose the war.
– I am convinced that war is the fastest means of dehumanization, when the line between good and evil is erased. War is always violence and blood, mangled bodies and torn limbs. It is always death, Gorinov wrote.
– For eight months, Russia has been conducting military operations in the territory of a neighboring state, shamefully calling it a “military special operation”. We are promised victory and glory. Why does a significant part of our citizens feel shame and guilt?, Gorinov asked.
Imprisoned opposition politician To Alexei Navalny a close ally Leonid Volkov called the sentence an instrument of terror.
– A spectacular public execution: so that no one would dare to call a war a war. In doing so, the Kremlin also exposes the weakness of its position — when even the most innocent rhetoric proves dangerous to their narratives — and points the way to action, Volkov wrote in your statement (you will switch to another service).