 "Russian court jails pro-war activist and Putin critic Sergei Udaltsov for ‘justifying terrorism’")
A Russian court on Thursday sentenced pro-war critic and activist Sergei Udaltsov to six years in prison for allegedly justifying terrorism.
Udaltsov, leader of the Left Front movement opposing President Vladimir Putin and affiliated with the Communist Party, was arrested last year.
Russian independent news outlet Mediazona reported that the charges relate to an article Udaltsov published online in support of a group of Russian activists previously accused of forming a terrorist organisation. Those activists were convicted earlier this month, receiving sentences between 16 and 22 years.
Rejecting the accusations as fabricated, Udaltsov denounced Thursday’s verdict as “shameful” and announced he would begin a hunger strike, according to Mediazona.
The court ruled that Udaltsov will serve his sentence in a maximum-security penal colony.
Udaltsov was a prominent opposition figure during the 2011-12 mass protests in Russia, triggered by reports of widespread rigging of a parliamentary election. In February 2012, he took part in a meeting that then-President Dmitry Medvedev held with various opposition figures.
Russian authorities have ramped up their crackdown on dissent and free speech after the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine, relentlessly targeting rights groups, independent media, members of civil society organizations, LGBTQ+ activists and some religious groups. Hundreds of people have been jailed and thousands of others have fled the country.
In December 2023, a Moscow court sentenced Udaltsov to 40 hours of compulsory labor for violating procedures relating to organising a rally after he was detained on Red Square, where he tried to unfurl a flag with the image of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, according to Russia’s state news agency Tass.
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View AllUdaltsov was previously imprisoned in 2014 and sentenced to 4½ years on charges related to his role in organizing a 2012 demonstration against Putin that turned turbulent. He was released in 2017.
With inputs from agencies
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