(Warsaw) A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced to six years in prison a man who had published messages on the internet denouncing the large-scale attack launched by Moscow against Ukraine, any public criticism of which is firmly repressed in Russia.
Nikolai Farafonov, 35, was found guilty of “public calls to commit terrorist acts” by a military court in Russia’s Komi Republic (north) and will have to serve his sentence in an “ordinary regime” camp, officials said. local media.
According to the prosecution, he had published “videos and messages” calling for the burning of military recruitment offices, while dozens of fires or attempted fires targeting these buildings have been reported in Russia over the past two years.
According to the NGO Memorial, which recognized him as a political prisoner, Mr. Farafonov lived in a small town in the region and ran a Telegram messaging channel openly hostile to the offensive against Kyiv.
He spoke in particular, again according to Memorial, of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine, political repression, pro-Kremlin “patriotic” education in schools, but also current events and problems in his region, the Komi Republic.
In October 2022, he had already been fined for “discrediting” the army for an online comment evoking, according to Memorial, the death of Ukrainian children to whom, in his words, “we brought the Russian world with bayonets.
After this fine, Nikolaï Farafonov nevertheless continued to publish critical messages until his arrest in September 2023 and these criminal proceedings for “calls to terrorism”.
Like him, thousands of people in Russia were sentenced to fines and hundreds of others to prison terms for denouncing the assault ordered by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine.