A Moscow court sentenced exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar to eight and a half years in prison in absentia for spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, as part of Russia’s intensifying crackdown on opposition media.
Zygar was charged with “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” according to the statement shared by the court.
The charges were based on an Instagram post from April 2022, where Zygar accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine.
Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, was occupied by Russian troops shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
After the city was liberated at the end of March 2022, mass graves with civilians were discovered, and thousands of war crimes were documented, making Bucha a symbol of Russian atrocities in Ukraine.
The Prosecutor General's Office said in March 2023 that more than 1,400 civilians were killed in Bucha District, including 637 in the city of Bucha, many of whom had gunshot wounds. The district figure included 37 children who were murdered by Russian forces.
Zygar was designated a “foreign agent” in 2022, and his sentence would begin upon his hypothetical extradition to Russia. However, Russia has not successfully extradited any prominent dissidents since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
These charges against Zygar come shortly after a Russian court on July 19 sentenced Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in jail on what are widely viewed as trumped-up charges of espionage.
Additionally, New York Times opinion columnist Masha A. Gessen was sentenced in absentia on July 15 by a Moscow court to eight years in prison over comments Gessen made about Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Nate Ostiller
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