A Moscow court has sentenced a 63-year-old man to seven years in prison for two anti-war posts on social media. In March of the previous year, he had condemned attacks by Russian military forces against the Ukrainian capital Kiev and the port city of Mariupol in two comments, reported today the Russian medium Meduza, who works in Latvia. The court found him guilty of spreading “fakes” about the Russian army.
“While we kill children, we sing songs on Channel One; We Russia have become wicked – Lord forgive us,” the man’s VKontakte post read. In his second comment, he wrote: “Russian planes bomb children.”
In his final words in court, the man stated that he valued everyone’s lives as the reason for his comments. “Life is an absolute value that must come first, even if it is not seen that way in our country,” he told Meduza. “I was raised that way.”
Russian law provides for severe penalties for any criticism of the armed forces or the conduct of the war in neighboring Ukraine.