A Moscow man was sentenced to five years in a labor camp on Monday for spreading “deliberately false information” about the Russian army, according to the court.
when in the summer of 2022 he made a statement to a TV crew that asked passers-by about the tense NATO-Russian relationship.
According to the Moscow Times report, the now 39-year-old Yuri Kokovec was asked by a reporter from Free Europe, which is classified as a “foreign agent” and an “undesirable organization”, about whether relations between NATO member states and Russia should ease. “Certainly”, but it all depends on “our government”, he answered. Kokovec added:
“I don’t think there is a problem with NATO, they don’t want to attack anyone. The Russian government is constantly talking about fighting the Ukrainian Nazis, but they are bombing shopping malls, and soldiers are shooting at civilians near Kiev.”
The authorities began to investigate months after the publication of the report and initiated criminal proceedings against the man. Kokovec pleaded partially guilty at Monday’s court hearing. The prosecutors asked for five and a half years in prison, and in the end he got five, which he must spend in a penal institution. He was also banned from the Internet for four years and must pay 10 percent of his benefits to the state for five years.
