Any lingering doubt that Russia would genuinely convict a journalist for expressing the same position as the United National and all democratic countries has now been quashed. On Jan. 20, Mykola Semena and his lawyer were presented with an indictment that is both eerily Soviet and openly surreal.
Almost three years after Russian invaded and annexed Ukrainian Crimea, a Ukrainian journalist is to go on trial for an article entitled ‘The Blockade is the necessary first step towards liberating Crimea’. The civic blockade in question was peaceful and there is not one word in the text calling for violence, yet Russia is claiming that the journalist was guilty of “calls to action aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation”. The charges are under Article 280.1 of Russia’s criminal code. This new ‘offence’ was added to Russia’s arsenal of ‘anti-extremism’ norms soon after Russia seized Crimea, and has already, as feared, been used to imprison people merely for criticizing Russia’s invasion and annexation.
