This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Russian opposition politician Leonid Gozman has been handed a 15-day jail term on a charge of equating Soviet-era Russia with Nazi Germany.
The Tver district court in Moscow handed down the ruling on August 30, a day after police detained the politician.
The charge against Gozman stemmed from his October 2020 posts on Facebook in which he compared Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and his regime with that of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
The law criminalizing equating the Soviet and Nazi regimes was adopted in 2021.
The 72-year-old politician is an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin. He has openly protested Russia’s ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Gozman was formerly a co-chairman of the now defunct Union of Right Forces political party and a top manager of the OAO Unified Energy System of Russia company and the Rusnano Group.
After Russia launched its war against Ukraine in late February, Gozman left for Israel but returned to Moscow in mid-June.
Gozman was previously investigated on a charge of not reporting his second citizenship. He holds both Russian and Israeli passports. Under Russian law citizens are required to report other citizenships immediately after obtaining them.
