A Russian man was sentenced to five years’ forced labour on Monday (22 April) for spreading “deliberately false information” about the army in a street interview with US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in which he talked about the war in Ukraine.
The sentence against Yuri Kokhovets, 39, was announced by the Moscow city courts service. RFE/RL journalists had approached him in July 2022 and asked him in a “vox pop” interview if he thought a detente between Russia and NATO countries was needed.
“Of course we need (a de-escalation), but it all depends on our government. It is our government that started it all… It is Russia who created all these problems”, Kokhovets told RFE/RL. “I don’t see any problems with NATO, it is not planning to attack anyone”.
He also said that Russian forces had killed civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha “for no reason at all”. Moscow denies accusations it has committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Kokhovets was first detained by authorities for alleged “hooliganism” in March last year and later charged under sweeping wartime censorship laws that Russia passed shortly after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since then at least 19,855 people have been detained in Russia for expressing anti-war views, according to rights group OVD-Info.
Kokhovets partially admitted guilt, but disagreed that his views were motivated by “political hatred”, OVD-Info said.
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RFE/RL is a US government-funded news outlet covering Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East.
Russian authorities labelled it a “foreign agent” in 2017 and designated it as an “undesirable” organisation in February this year, a move that effectively bans it inside Russia and subjects those who read or share its work online to possible criminal prosecution.
RFE/RL did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment on Kokhovets’ case.
Russia has held a RFE/RL reporter, Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual US-Russian citizen, in pre-trial detention since October 2023.
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Comments ( 1)
Bear witness to the greatest fear of putin's regime.
It cannot allow a sentence to be uttered by russian citizens that is not monitored and weighed for its potential threat. It cannot allow a child to draw a Ukrainian flag. Russia's system wastes a huge amount of its resources to remove such base freedoms.
The smart and morally committed leave or end up in jail (or dead). Their contributions no longer benefit russian society. Resigned lethargy sets in amongst those who remain; Innovation and productivity drops. The thug regime eventually needs to steal from its neighbours, to sustain its greed. It needs their washing machines. It lies and tells its soldiers they are fighting Nazis.
Quietly under their breathe the remaining aware Russia public plead "Save us Tom Cruise", "Save us baby Jesus". But here's the thing: as a nuclear power, no external force can overthrow the putin government without starting a world war. Putin's thugs know the threat they must worry about the most is being overthrown by their own people. As with every other democratic society, its the people that bring about their own salvation.
This newly incarcerated Russia man is the type of person who speaks the truth despite knowing it leads to jail. Brave, but it sadly does change the oppressive system. If russians want change, its people must rise up violently. It may be messy, but it is the only path to dispose a tyrant.