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A hairdresser from St. Petersburg has been sentenced to five years and two months in prison for allegedly disseminating false information regarding the Russian military.
Anna Alexandrova has refuted the claims that she posted eight anti-war messages on social media, asserting that the case arose from a dispute over land with a neighbor.
The neighbor, who spoke with the BBC, stated she reported Alexandrova to authorities after receiving distressing images of the war in Ukraine sent to her daughter by Alexandrova.
In Russia, laws aimed at penalizing the discrediting of the armed forces and the intentional spread of false information about the military came into effect shortly after the escalation of military actions in Ukraine in February 2022.
Since the beginning of the war, the Kremlin has cracked down on dissent, resulting in the incarceration of numerous opponents and the suppression of independent journalism.
In a separate incident on the same day, four journalists in Moscow were sentenced to five and a half years in prison for their association with what the government has labeled an “extremist organization.”
Antonina Favorskaya, Konstantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin, and Artyom Kriger defended themselves by claiming they were simply performing their duties as journalists; however, the court determined that their work had been utilized by an anti-corruption group founded by Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin.
Notably, Navalny was reported dead in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle last year. The last footage of him alive was captured by Favorskaya during a courtroom video link just a day before his death.
Favorskaya was later arrested in March 2024 while filming at the cemetery where Navalny was interred.
Russia’s stringent regulations on dissent have affected individuals across various sectors of society. Many citizens have found themselves facing severe legal repercussions due to denunciations from their peers, evoking memories of the Soviet era when informants gained notoriety for betraying family members, as exemplified by the story of Pavlik Morozov.
Anna Alexandrova, a 47-year-old mother of two, was arrested in November 2023 after allegedly sharing content through two anonymous accounts on the Russian social network VKontakte.
When BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg visited the court last September, Alexandrova’s lawyer indicated that the case originated from a simple neighborhood disagreement over property.
According to her lawyer, Anastasia Pilipenko, “One side went to the police but found no support. The situation escalated only after the charge of ‘fake news about the army’ emerged.”
Interestingly, Alexandrova and her neighbor had previously collaborated to combat local deforestation concerning developers in the village of Korpikyulya, located south of St. Petersburg, before their relationship deteriorated.
Despite her denials of sending war-related images to her neighbor, the court sentenced Alexandrova to a penal colony and prohibited her from sharing any further content for three years.
Meanwhile, legal representatives for Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow councillor who received the first full prison term under the “fake news” legislation in July 2022, have lodged a complaint regarding the offense with Russia’s constitutional court.
Gorinov was initially sentenced to seven years in prison after he was filmed opposing the notion of hosting a children’s drawing competition while children were dying in Ukraine due to the conflict.
This sentence was later extended by an additional three years for alleged criticisms he made regarding the war while in a prison hospital.
In their statement released on Tuesday, lawyers Katerina Tertukhina and Olga Podoplelova argued that the 2022 legislation purportedly aimed at countering disinformation does not pursue constitutionally valid objectives.
They contended, “Under the pretense of safeguarding public order, it is employed to stifle anti-war sentiments, criticism of government authorities, and the sharing of information—regardless of its truthfulness—if it conflicts with the official narrative.”
Source
www.bbc.com