In Moscow, a film director was sent to prison for statements on social networks against the war and Putin

Illustrative photo from open sources

On Thursday, November 14, a military court in Moscow sentenced a 43-year-old woman to eight years in prison for anti-war posts, including calls for the assassination of Vladimir Putin, Russian news agencies report, Reuters reports.

Anastasia Berezhinskaya, a Moscow theater director and mother of two, was found guilty of violating two laws – the law on discrediting the Russian army and spreading so-called “fakes” about it, and the law on justifying terrorism.

Berezhinskaya pleaded guilty to the charge of distributing “fakes” and discrediting the army, the independent news outlet Mediazona reports, but only partially pleaded guilty to the charge of justifying terrorism.

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In the first months after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Berezhinskaya published dozens of posts online against the war. The Russian army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Putin himself, according to her, are committing “genocide” against the Ukrainian people.

On May 14, 2022, she published more than three dozen posts on the social network “VKontakte” insulted Putin and called for his assassination, saying he was personally responsible for the deaths of men, women and children whose bodies were pulled from the rubble of Ukrainian apartment buildings.

According to the human rights project OVD-Info, more than 1,000 people have been prosecuted in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine, and more than 20,000 people have been detained for protesting.

On Tuesday, November 12, a Moscow court sentenced a 68-year-old pediatrician to five and a half years in prison after the mother of one of her patients publicly condemned her for comments about Russian troops in Ukraine.

Prepared by: Sergey Daga