Moscow's Basmanny district court sentenced Ukrainian film producer Alexander Rodnyansky, on Oct. 21, to 8 and a half years in absentia for "spreading fake information" about the Russian Army.
Rodnyansky worked in Russia for decades, and fled after Russia’s full-scale invasion started in 2022.
The 63-year-old Oscar-nominated producer was accused of reporting on the shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol and other attacks on civilian infrastructure throughout the war.
Rodnyansky stated that the case stemmed from his "anti-war posts on Instagram," expressing strong disagreement with the verdict.
"No Basmanny court can stop me from speaking loudly," he said on Telegram.
“The prosecutor said in her speech that my posts ‘expressed a negative attitude towards the Russian military by characterizing their activities as invasive.’ And I agree with the prosecutor. And so does the rest of the world. Russia's war in Ukraine is invasive and despicable.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on dissent since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has seen thousands of his citizens arrested and many jailed.
In 2023, at least 21,000 people were targeted by Russia's "repressive laws" used to "crack down" on anti-war activists," according to Amnesty International.
Abbey Fenbert
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