Russia jails journalist for 2 years for opposing Ukraine war

Moscow:

A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a journalist to two years in prison for condemning Moscow’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, while police in Moscow detained five other journalists in a 24-hour period.

Russia has made ground-level reporting dangerous and illegal since sending troops into Ukraine two years ago, and has arrested and fined those who violate the Kremlin’s narrative.

A court in the western exclave of Kaliningrad ruled that journalist Mikhail Feldman had defamed Russia’s armed forces in a series of posts on the VKontakte social network, the OVD-Info and Memorial rights groups said, citing his lawyer.

“This was the sentence the prosecution had asked for,” OVD-Info said. “In addition to being imprisoned, Feldman was banned from managing websites for two years.”

Russia has launched hundreds of criminal cases against individuals who oppose its campaign against Ukraine.

Under military censorship laws, Russians who make offensive online criticism or journalists who use information other than that provided by Russian authorities could face years in prison.

The sentencing came after police in Moscow detained five independent journalists in the past 24 hours, OVD-Info reported on Thursday, one of whom said he was beaten.

SOTAvision journalist Antonina Favorskaya was taken in for questioning late Wednesday after serving 10 days in jail for laying flowers on the grave of late opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

SOTAvision said his colleagues Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, who came to meet him at the detention center where he was to be released, were also detained by police.

Then, on Thursday morning, police arrested SOTAvision journalists Ekaterina Anikievich and Rusnews’ Konstantin Zharov, who were filming near Favorskaya’s home.

“They kicked me, stepped on my head, twisted my fingers, made fun of me when I tried to get up, demanded to show my rucksack as if it might contain explosives,” Zharov said.

Since launching its attack on Ukraine, Russia has banned, blocked or attempted to censor almost all independent media organizations still active in the country.

Many independent journalists fled in the wake of the attack, and those who remain remain at risk. American journalists Ivan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva are currently in jail awaiting trial.

Also on Thursday, a court remanded an associate of Navalny to pre-trial detention on charges related to “extremism.”

Olga Komleva, who volunteered at Navalny’s Ufa headquarters in central Russia, was arrested earlier this week in the latest cases against Navalny’s associates living in Russia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)