Ex-Ekaterinburg mayor Yevgeny Roizman said he was to be charged under laws banning criticism of armed forces. Russian police have detained one of the most prominent opposition politicians still free in the country for his public criticism of the Ukraine war, capping a six-month crackdown on dissent propelled by the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbour. Yevgeny Roizman, the former mayor of Ekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia, said he was to be charged for his use of the word “invasion” under strict new laws that ban criticism of the Russian armed forces. He could face five years in prison if convicted, Russian state news media reported. Little is left of an organised opposition movement in Russia, where people who protest against the war either do so anonymously or are, like Roizman, simply waiting for arrest. More than 224 Russians are facing jail time for calling the conflict a “war” or “invasion”, the OVD-Info human rights group reported on Wednesday. Nearly 16,500 people have been detained across Russia for protesting against the war since late February. Even individuals holding up anti-war signs, an act nominally protected under Russian law, are quickly bundled into police vans. Most vocal opposition members are now in exile. Roizman, who built his political base through his public outreach and blunt, often foul-mouthed criticism of the Russian authorities, had refused to stay quiet. “I now understand how the anti-fascists felt during the Third Reich,” he told the Observer in an interview in March. “But I can’t flee, it is unacceptable for me to do that.” Three of the six activists quoted in that article have since been arrested.
via guardian: Russia detains opposition politician for calling Ukraine war ‘an invasion’
Von <a href=”//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Lee_Ayrton&action=edit&redlink=1″ class=”new” title=”User:Lee Ayrton (page does not exist)”>Lee Ayrton</a> – <span class=”int-own-work” lang=”de”>Eigenes Werk</span>, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link