Russia opens criminal investigation against opponent Ilia Yachin
Ilia Yashin was one of the last opposition figures not to be in exile or sentenced to a long prison term. But the Russian Investigative Committee, in charge of the main investigations, opened an investigation against the opponent for “spreading false information” on the Russian army, said on Facebook his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorovwho says he has “received a call from the investigator”. “A search begins at his home. I’m going there”he added.
Ilia Iachine, aged 39, was sentenced on June 28 to fifteen days’ detention for “disobedience to the police”, a charge he considered trumped up, and was therefore still in prison on Tuesday. Mr. Iachine had said earlier tuesday on social media that he was supposed to be released shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday. “Maybe they’ll get me out.” Maybe not “he had written.
The “spreading false information” on the Russian army is a new offense punishable by fifteen years in prison, introduced after the start of the conflict in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the offensive, on February 24, the Russian authorities have carried out a fierce repression against the few critics of the conflict, pushing many of them into exile, others being imprisoned or prosecuted.
A well-known face of the opposition to President Vladimir Putin, Ilia Yachin had chosen to stay, publicly condemning the intervention in Ukraine. “The real reasons for my arrest are obviously political. I am an opponent, a deputy [municipal] independent, a critic of President Putin and an opponent of the war in Ukraine »he said during his arrest at the end of June.
Mr. Yachine has been an active activist in the liberal opposition in Russia since the 2000s and took part in the great mobilization movement against Vladimir Putin in 2011-2012. He is an ally of anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, the number one opponent of Vladimir Putin, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence in a harsh regime colony north of Moscow.