In hand-written letter to The Globe and Mail, the Russian opposition says his anti-war message is ‘louder and more convincing’ behind bars
on charges of disobeying a police officer. Fifteen days later, he was charged with the crime of disseminating “false information” about the Russian military during the invasion of Ukraine. In December, he was convicted and sentenced to 8½ years in jail.
Mr. Yashin stands in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Moscow on Nov. 29, 2022. Yashin was sentenced to 8½ years in prison on a conviction of spreading false information about Russian soldiers.must end with a complete Russian withdrawal, reparations payments for the damage caused by the war, and “handing the war criminals, including the political and military leadership of current Russia, over to the International Criminal Court.
Mr. Yashin served as a Moscow city councillor until 2021, making him one of the last opposition figures to hold any kind of elected office. Despite Russia’s current spiral into authoritarianism and militarism, he expressed confidence that the country would one day return to “the path of civilized development.”
“Russian prisons don’t make one healthier, and many political prisoners had to face it firsthand. Vladimir Kara-Murza has lost almost 25 kilograms behind bars. Alexey Navalny has been basically tortured in a disciplinary cell for the past six months, his health deteriorating continuously. Alexei Gorinov, incarcerated for declaring a minute of silence in memory of the killed Ukrainian children, had to spend a few months in a hospital due to hyperthermia.