A Russian judged for having denounced the offensive in Ukraine during a micro-sidewalk
Yuri Kokhovets, a 37-year-old Russian, appeared Wednesday August 30 in Moscow to have criticized the offensive in Ukraine during a micro-sidewalk of the media Radio Svoboda, the Russian antenna of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE /RL), a media funded by the United States since the Cold War in July 2022, the first case of this type in a context of generalized repression in Russia. The trial was adjourned, after a brief hearing, to September 18.
In this interview, Yuri Kokhovets believed that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government were bandits responsible for the conflict and rejected the Kremlin’s arguments to justify this attack. “Our government has said it wants to fight the nationalists [ukrainiens]but bombs shopping malls”, he said. He also accused the Russian military of having “killed for no reason” civilians in Boutcha, a locality near kyiv which was the scene of a massacre attributed to Moscow forces at the start of the conflict in 2022. “We have to stop all this. With us, one man can stop all that.he added, at the exit of a metro station, in reference to Vladimir Putin.
In March, Yuri Kokhovets was arrested by the police and, after 48 hours in police custody, was fined 500 rubles (about 5 euros at the current rate) for “hooliganism”, according to the organization OVD-Info, which ensures its defense. His case was later reclassified as “spreading false information about the Russian armed forces”, a charge introduced into the penal code at the start of the conflict and for which thousands of Russians have already been sentenced, sometimes to heavy prison terms. He faces up to ten years in prison.
This is the first known case of prosecution for remarks critical of the offensive in Ukraine during a press interview in Russia, in the context of a repression in full swing. Almost all of the major opponents have fled the country or been imprisoned, like Alexeï Navalny, who has been sentenced to increasingly heavy sentences.
Thousands of ordinary Russians have also been condemned for their opposition to the conflict, whether in protest actions or even simple social media posts. According to OVD-Info, almost 20,000 people have been arrested since February 2022. This week alone, Russian courts have to consider 71 cases with political overtones.