This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
One of Russia’s best-known TV journalists, Aleksandr Nevzorov, has been sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for allegedly discrediting the armed forces involved in the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow’s Basmanny district court handed down the sentence on February 1. The prosecutor had asked for a nine-year prison term for the Kremlin critic.
The Investigative Committee launched a probe into Nevzorov in March 2022 over statements he made on Instagram and YouTube that criticized the armed forces for a deadly assault on a nursing home in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and the alleged torture and killing of civilians in the town of Bucha.
In May, a court in Moscow ordered that Nevzorov be detained for two months should he return to Russia.
Nevzorov’s property in the northwestern Leningrad region was impounded in what the court said was a move to secure compensation for any possible fines Nevzorov will be ordered to pay if convicted.
Nevzorov is currently on tour across Canada with lectures about Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine. He currently resides in an unspecified European Union member state.
In June 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to Nevzorov and his wife Lidia “for transcendental services” to Ukraine.
In the days after launching his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation that calls for lengthy prison terms for distributing “deliberately false information” about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine.
The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of “deliberately false information” about the Russian military that leads to “serious consequences” is 15 years in prison.
It also makes it illegal “to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia” or “for discrediting such use” with a possible penalty of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.
Nevzorov, who continues to sharply criticize Putin and his government over the Moscow-launched war in Ukraine on his YouTube channel, has rejected the charges, saying he has a right to express his own opinion.
