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A Moscow court on Monday sentenced a 64-year-old pensioner to eight years in prison for spreading “deliberately false” information about the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine, independent media outlet Mediazona reported.
Konstantin Seleznev was sentenced for publishing two posts on the social media site VKontakte (VK), where he spoke out against the Russian military’s crimes in Ukraine, including the 2022 massacre of civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
In his second post, Seleznev called President Vladimir Putin the “leader of a terrorist state” and stated he did not consider him a “legitimate president.”
Seleznev was arrested in October 2023. During a pretrial hearing, he became unwell and lost consciousness.
He also said he was facing pressure in the detention center from other inmates and was later transferred to an overcrowded cell in another detention facility.
Seleznev joins a long list of people arrested for dissent against the war in Ukraine. Russia outlawed “discrediting” and spreading “deliberately false” information about the Russian military shortly after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
In November, Russian authorities sentenced pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, to five-and-a-half years in prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine during a patient visit.
In January 2024, Yevgeniya Maiboroda, a 73-year-old pensioner, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for sharing a post online about Russia's military casualties in Ukraine.
Maiboroda pleaded guilty but denied she was motivated by “political hatred” as prosecutors alleged.
She shared two posts on VK, one an “emotional video” about the conflict and the other on the number of soldiers killed.
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