Russia jails doctor for criticising Ukraine campaign

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00:00Now, a court in Moscow has sentenced a 68-year-old paediatrician to five and a half years behind

00:05bars.

00:06Dr. Nadezhda Boyanova blamed for denouncing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

00:11For more on this story, we can go to our former Moscow bureau chief, Nick Holdsworth.

00:16Standing by, Nick, good afternoon to you.

00:19Does this verdict reflect a wider crackdown on opposition to the war?

00:25Absolutely.

00:28This 68-year-old paediatrician was accused of criticizing the Russian army in Ukraine

00:35under a law that forbids the spreading of so-called false information about the Russian

00:40army.

00:41The entire case was based upon the word of one of her former patients and, indeed, the

00:47word of a 7-year-old son of that woman, Anastasia Akintchena.

00:53This is one of many such cases, and people are being hauled before the courts for comments

01:00that may or may not be true, that may have been taken out of context, that boil down

01:04to, in this case, the woman allegedly saying that the former husband of the woman who complained

01:12who was killed fighting in Ukraine was a legitimate target for the Ukrainian army.

01:20Now that may or may not be true, but the fact is that hundreds of people have been sentenced

01:25to very long prison sentences in Russia for merely criticizing the war in Ukraine, and

01:32in this case, the prosecution had asked for six years, and the woman has been sentenced

01:36to five and a half years in a penal colony.

01:39She called it absurd in comments made to the judge just before the sentence was read out,

01:45and supporters in court shouted shame on you to the judge after the sentence was announced

01:50in a district court in the north of Moscow earlier today.

01:55Nick, when the war first broke out, we saw those very brave people go out on the streets

02:01of Moscow and across cities in Russia to protest.

02:05Then when we had the draft, of course, we had people who came out on the streets once

02:09again.

02:10We had people come out with just carrying a piece of white paper, and they were picked

02:14up and arrested.

02:16Is there just no space for dissent in Russia anymore?

02:19Basically, there is no space at all left for dissent in Russia anymore.

02:24You don't see any demonstrations on the street.

02:27You don't even see those one-person pickets, as you just mentioned, holding a blank piece

02:31of paper.

02:32There really is virtually no dissent left in Russia at all, and virtually all of the

02:38cases in recent weeks and months against people accused of spreading false information

02:43about the Russian army, that's the name of the law, are based upon private comments,

02:50individuals such as this woman who said that the pediatrician had said these words, criticising

02:57the Russian army, and indeed bringing a 7-year-old child into court, saying my father was a hero,

03:03and the doctor criticised him and criticised the war in Russia.

03:08The defence team said that Nadezhda Buryanova never said any of these words, and indeed

03:15the child wasn't even in the room during the time when the alleged conversation took place.

03:20Nick, thank you very much for that.

03:23Nick Colesworth reporting.

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