A member of Moscow’s district parliament was sentenced to seven years in prison for publicly criticizing Russia’s war against Ukraine. The court’s official reasoning was that Alexey Gorinov “deliberately disseminated false information about the deployment of the armed forces of the Russian Federation”. Opponents of the government criticized the verdict as politically motivated and as a pretext to get rid of the critical lawyer.
The 60-year-old politician was convicted under a relatively new law that criminalizes alleged “fake news” about the Russian army. Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in late February, several trials have started under the controversial and feared law. But Gorinov’s punishment is by far the harshest imposed to date.
The background to the investigations against him is a council meeting of the district parliament in mid-March, which addressed the question of whether there should be a drawing contest for children. Gorinov and a colleague who fled abroad spoke out against such entertainment offers – with reference to the current suffering in neighboring Ukraine.
In the discussion at the time, Gorinov spoke of “war” – not a “special military operation” as officially specified by the Kremlin. Recordings of the meeting were subsequently posted on the Internet – and Gorinov’s words were thus assessed by the court as having been publicly released.
Russian opposition members were shocked by the verdict. Spokeswoman for imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, Kira Jarmysch, wrote on Twitter: “Seven years in prison for Alexei Gorinov, who simply called the war ‘war’ – this is really terrible.” Navalny also repeatedly spoke of war and criticized the bloodshed in Ukraine.