TALLINN, Estonia Associated Press —A doctor accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison, part of an unrelenting Kremlin crackdown on dissent. Akinshina alleged that Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier who apparently was killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for Kyiv’s troops and had blamed Moscow for the war. A video of the outraged Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicized, and chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin personally demanded a criminal case be brought against the doctor. Buyanova, who was born in western Ukraine, denied the accusation, insisting she never said what she was accused of saying. In her closing statement to the court, Buyanova said it was “painful” to read the accusations in the indictment, and broke down.

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Persons: Dr, Nadezhda Buyanova, Anastasia Akinshina, Akinshina, Buyanova, Alexander Bastrykin, “, ” Mediazona, Buyanova’s, Oscar Cherdzhyev, ” Organizations: Press, Russia’s, Authorities Locations: TALLINN, Estonia, Ukraine, Russian, Moscow, Russia