A Moscow court sentenced the co-chairman of Memorial, the Russian rights group that was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, to two and a half years in prison on Tuesday for “discrediting” Russia’s military by voicing his opposition to the war in Ukraine.
Although the Kremlin ordered his group liquidated in late 2021, the co-chairman, Oleg Orlov, 70, chose to stay in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine two years ago and has continued to criticize his government despite a climate of increasing repression.
In November 2022, Mr. Orlov wrote an article headlined “They Wanted Fascism.
They Got it,” in which he blamed President Vladimir V. Putin and the wider Russian public for the invasion and for allowing the country to slip “back into totalitarianism.”Nearly a year later, he was convicted of “repeated discreditation” of Russia’s armed forces.
That charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, but he was punished only with a fine of 150,000 rubles, about $1,600, because of mitigating factors including his age and his prominent public profile.
Persons:
”, Oleg Orlov, Orlov, Vladimir V, Putin, “
Organizations:
Memorial, Kremlin
Locations:
Moscow, Ukraine, Russia