(Moscow) The Russian opponent Yevgeny Roizman, former mayor of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, and one of the last opposition figures still free, was arrested on Wednesday for having wanted to “discredit” the army, announced the Russian authorities.
Posted at 8:16 a.m.
Founder of a charitable foundation of his name, Mr. Roïzman, 59, was the subject of a muscular arrest, a dozen armed police officers in camouflage uniforms having come to his home in Yekaterinburg early in the morning, according to a video broadcast by the Mash channel on Telegram.
An investigation for wanting to “discredit” the Russian armed forces has been opened against him in Moscow where he must be transferred after his arrest, the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
The investigators accuse Mr. Roizman of having published on the Internet a video whose content was aimed at “discrediting the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out to defend the interests of the country and its citizens”, according to the same source.
According to a police source quoted by the official TASS agency, it is a video denouncing the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which was published by the opponent on his channel on YouTube.
Mayor of Ekaterinburg between 2013 and 2018, Evguéni Roïzman now faces up to 10 years in prison.
His lawyer, Vladislav Idamjapov, told TASS news agency later in the day that his client had been remanded in custody for 48 hours.
Leaving his apartment after the arrest, accompanied by the police, the opponent claimed to be prosecuted for having publicly used the word “invasion” to describe the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
Recently, Mr. Roizman has already been sentenced to three fines for criticizing the offensive in Ukraine.
“I understand that they can arrest me,” Evguéni Roïzman told AFP at the end of July. “I have no illusions, I’m not afraid. »
Crushed by previous waves of repression, the Russian opposition has been decimated since the assault in Ukraine. The last great critics of President Vladimir Putin emigrated or were imprisoned.
Recently, Ilia Iachine and Vladimir Kara-Mourza, two opponents who remained in Russia, were imprisoned for having denounced the conflict. They risk ten years in prison. Before that, the leading opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, had been imprisoned in January 2021.