A Moscow court this Wednesday sentenced Liudmila Stein, a member of the Pussy Riot group, to six years in prison ‘in absentia’ for the crime of insulting the Armed Forces for a series of statements about the invasion of Ukraine.
Included on the most wanted list since 2022, Stein has been condemned for publicly spreading “deliberately false news” about the actions of the Armed Forces in the “special military operation”, as the Kremlin refers to the war in Ukraine.
The ruling also includes a ban on Internet access for three and a half years. In 2002, after fleeing abroad, she was detained in absentia and sentenced to pay a fine of 50,000 rubles (about 500 euros) for discrediting the Armed Forces.
Stein was already sentenced to another year in prison for instigating breaking health regulations, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, by participating in a demonstration in support of the now deceased opponent Alexei Navalni, Interfax notes.