This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Russian journalist Yulia Starostina, who worked as a volunteer to help Ukrainian refugees, was fined 50,000 rubles ($660) on February 28 for “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces during Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. A Moscow court concluded that Starostina was guilty because she described the invasion as a war in an interview with Dozhd TV in December. The Kremlin refers to it as “a special military operation,” and have made it illegal to call it otherwise.
