A Moscow court has sentenced a poet to seven years in prison for reciting verses against Russia's war in Ukraine
December 28, 2023, 3:04 pm ET
• 2 min reading
A Russian poet was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday for reciting verses against Russia's war in Ukraine, a harsh punishment imposed during the Kremlin's relentless crackdown on dissent.
Moscow's Tverskoy District Court convicted Artyom Kamardin of calls endangering national security and inciting hatred, which related to his reading his anti-war poems during a street performance in downtown Moscow in September 2022.
Yegor Shtovba, who attended the event and recited Kamardin's verses, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison on the same charge.
The gathering near the monument to poet Vladimir Mayakovsky came a few days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilization of 300,000 reservists amid Moscow's military setbacks in Ukraine. The widely unpopular move caused hundreds of thousands to flee Russia to avoid military recruitment.
Police quickly broke up the performance and soon arrested Kamardin and several other participants.
Russian media quoted Kamardin's friends and his lawyer as saying police beat and raped him during his arrest. Shortly afterwards, a police video published by pro-Kremlin media showed him apologizing for his actions with a hurt face.
Authorities took no action to investigate alleged police abuse.
During Thursday's hearing, Kamardin's wife, Alexandra Popova, was escorted from the courtroom by bailiffs after shouting “Shame!” after the verdict. Popova, who spoke to reporters after the hearing, and several other people were later arrested on charges of holding an unauthorized “rally” outside the courthouse.
Between the end of February 2022 and the beginning of this month, 19,847 people were arrested in Russia for speaking out or protesting against the war, while 794 people were involved in criminal cases for their anti-war stance, according to human rights group OVD-Info, which tracks political arrests and provides legal assistance.
The crackdown was based on a law that Moscow passed days after sending troops to Ukraine and effectively criminalized any public statement about the war that deviated from the official narrative.