Russian student sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for criticizing the invasion of Ukraine

(Patria) - A court in Moscow has sentenced a student activist to eight and a half years in prison for social media posts criticizing Russia's attack on Ukraine, the latest step in a comprehensive crackdown on any criticism by Russian authorities.

Dmitry Ivanov (23) was convicted of spreading false information about the Russian army, which was made a criminal offense under a new law that Russian lawmakers passed a week after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

The law has been used to prosecute individuals who deviate from the government's official narrative about the conflict, which the Kremlin insists on calling a "special military operation."

 

A court in the Russian Federation sentenced Dmitry Ivanov, the administrator of the "Protest MSU" Telegram channel, to 8.5 years in prison for publishing "fakes about the army."

Ivanov pleaded not guilty. pic.twitter.com/X6xTJRrgoS

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 7, 2023

Ivanov was accused of numerous social media posts on his Telegram channel that called Russia's campaign in Ukraine a "war" and spoke of Russian forces attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, committing war crimes in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha and Irpin, and targeting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

At the time of his arrest in April 2022, Ivanov was a student at Lomonosov Moscow State University, one of Russia's top universities, also known as MSU.

He ran a popular Telegram channel called Protest MSU, which was launched in 2018 to cover student protests against the construction of a fan zone next to the university's main building for the World Cup football tournament in Russia.