Opposition politician Ilya Yashin is being investigated by Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee on suspicion of spreading “false information” about the army, a lawyer for several opposition activists said Tuesday.
Yashin, a municipal representative from Moscow’s Krasnoselsky district, is an outspoken critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was due to leave a Moscow prison early Wednesday after being jailed for 15 days for disobeying a police officer – a move he said was linked to his activism.
“I got a call from an investigator just now – a search of his (Yashin’s) house is starting. I’m on my way,” lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said on social media.
Days after launching an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia made it a crime to deliberately disseminate “false information” about the army, defining it as any report that deviates from official accounts.
Last week, Alexei Gorinov, a member of the Krasnoselsky district council, became the first to go to prison for the new crime after receiving a seven-year sentence.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” and says it had to defend Russian-speakers from persecution and neutralize a Western-inspired security threat.
Kiev and its Western allies say these are baseless pretexts for an unprovoked imperial land grab.
Source: CNN Brasil
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