- By Steve Rosenberg
- Russia editor
2 hours ago
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Oleg Orlov was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for “discrediting” the Russian armed forces
Oleg Orlov appeared calm as he waited for the judge to deliver the verdict.
Room 518 in the courthouse was packed with well-wishers, foreign ambassadors and journalists.
The judge entered the courtroom and began reading the verdict.
She found the veteran human rights activist guilty of “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian armed forces.
After naming the crime, she announced the punishment: Oleg Orlov, co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Memorial, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
He was handcuffed and led from the courtroom by police a few minutes later.
It was a new trial.
In October 2023, the court also made a guilty verdict. However, the punishment was much lighter back then.
Oleg Orlov was fined 150,000 rubles (£1,290; $1,630) and released. Prosecutors complained that the sentence was too lenient. A higher court overturned the verdict and ordered a retrial.
It was a sign that authorities in Russia were becoming increasingly intolerant of public criticism.
In protest at having to appear in court again, Oleg Orlov paid little attention to the proceedings the second time. Instead, he sat in court and read a copy of The Trial, Franz Kafka's classic about the absurdity of life and injustice.
When I interviewed him last year before his first trial, he insisted he had done nothing wrong.
“The article under which I am being tried is 'Public actions aimed at discrediting the use of the Russian Armed Forces to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens and to maintain international peace and security'”, he told me.
“First of all, the Russian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. I have written an article giving my assessment of the events. Prosecuting me for this is unconstitutional.”
“Secondly, what is happening in Ukraine – let’s be clear and call it a war – is against the interests of Russia and Russian citizens.”
“As far as 'maintaining international peace and security' is concerned, that is a joke. It reminds me of George Orwell's 'War is Peace' and 'Freedom is Slavery'. Claiming that the war in Ukraine is 'in the interests of international peace' is justified.” Nonsense,” he said.
This week, in his final statement on the retrial, Oleg Orlov spoke of a Russia that is “sinking deeper and deeper into darkness.”
He gave examples: the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison, judicial reprisals against other government critics. He summarized what was happening in his country as a “stifling of freedom.”
“We know the real reason we are arrested, tried, arrested, convicted and killed. We are being punished for daring to criticize the authorities. In today’s Russia this is absolutely forbidden,” he said.
Addressing the judge and prosecutor, he added: “Doesn’t the obvious occur to you? That sooner or later the repressive machinery could roll over those who created and pushed it forward? This has happened many times throughout history.”
Oleg Orlov is not the first government critic in Russia to have his fine commuted to prison. Last year, prominent sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky was found guilty of “publicly justifying terrorism” for comments he made about the 2022 Crimean bridge attack. In this case too, the public prosecutor appealed against the verdict. Earlier this month, a court sentenced Mr. Kagarlitsky to five years in prison.
Since Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, Russian authorities have put together an extensive toolkit of repressive laws to punish government critics and opponents of the war in Ukraine.
In addition to criminalizing “discrediting” the army, the Russian Criminal Code now also penalizes what it calls “the public dissemination of intentionally false information about the operations of the Russian armed forces.”
Often referred to as the “anti-counterfeiting law,” it was used to imprison such vocal Kremlin critics as Ilya Yashin.
Last year, Kremlin critic and anti-war activist Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in a penal colony for treason.
These are dark days for the Russian opposition.
Alexei Navalny, one of the Kremlin's most charismatic critics, is dead; other leaders are in prison or have fled into exile.
For now, it appears that Vladimir Putin's most vocal critics and potential rivals have been removed from the political stage.