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Russia Denounces Cookbook Author for ‘Provocative’ Posts in Ukraine
MOSCOW (AP) – A Moscow court on Monday sentenced a popular cookbook author and blogger to nine years in prison after convicting her of absent-mindedly spreading false information about the country’s military. The trial was part of the Kremlin’s broader, month-long crackdown on dissent.
The charges against Veronika Belotserkovskaya, who lives abroad, were brought through her Instagram posts, which allege that the authorities provided “deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to destroy cities and civilians of Ukraine, including children.”
Belotserkovskaya, whose Instagram profile states that she was born in Odessa, a city in southern Ukraine, responded to news of the conviction by writing that she was “on the one hand perplexed and on the other hand, of course, proud.” may be.
The Russian investigative committee announced on March 16, 2022 that it would open a case against Belotserkovskaya, several weeks after Moscow’s troops invaded Ukraine. It was the first public case under a new law passed earlier this month that penalizes information deemed derogatory to the Russian military.
Russian authorities issued an arrest warrant for the blogger in absentia, put her on a wanted list and confiscated her assets worth 153 million rubles (about $2.2 million).
She was also declared a “foreign agent,” a designation that implies additional state control and carries heavily pejorative connotations designed to discredit the recipient.
Belotserkovskaya received by far the longest prison sentence under the new law and is the second prominent public figure to be convicted in absentia.
Last week a Moscow court sentenced Alexander Nevzorov, a TV journalist and former MP, in absentia to eight years in prison on the same charge. Nevzorov has been accused of posting “false information” on social media about the Russian shelling of a maternity hospital in the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Moscow has vehemently denied its involvement.
The journalist moved abroad after the start of the Ukraine conflict.
In December, prominent opposition politician Ilya Yashin was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison under the same law. Earlier last year, Alexei Gorinov, a member of a Moscow municipal council headed by Yashin, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his critical comments on hostilities in Ukraine.
Another leading opposition figure, Vladimir Kara-Murza, is currently in detention and faces the same charges.
The Associated Press
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