Student gets eight years in prison for criticising Ukraine war

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A court in Moscow sentenced a student activist to 8 1/2 years in prison for social media posts criticising Russia's war in Ukraine, the latest step in a sweeping crackdown on dissent unleashed by the Kremlin.

Dmitry Ivanov, 23, was convicted of spreading false information about the Russian army, which was made a criminal offence under a new law that Russian lawmakers rubber-stamped a week after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

The legislation has been used to prosecute individuals who deviate from the government's official narrative of the conflict that the Kremlin insists on calling “a special military operation.”

Prominent opposition politicians, such as Ilya Yashin, who is serving an 8 1/2 prison term, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is in jail awaiting trial, also were charged with spreading false information about the military.

Ivanov was charged over a number of social media posts in his Telegram channel that called Russia's campaign in Ukraine a “war” and talked about 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.

Most were reposts from other sources.

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