2024-04-23 13:03:04
Rusnak was sentenced to five years of community service for deliberately spreading “false information” about the army in a US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Svojoda (RFE/RS) poll in which he spoke about the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported , quoted by BTA.
The verdict against 39-year-old Yuri Kokhovets was read in the Moscow City Court.
RCE/RS journalists stopped the man on the street in July 2022 and asked him in a poll about his opinion on whether a rapprochement between Russia and NATO countries is necessary.
“Of course, we need (de-escalation), but it all depends on our government. Our government started all this. Russia is the one who created these problems,” Kokkhovets told RFE/RL. “I don’t see any problems with NATO, they they did not plan to attack anyone,” he added.
He also said that Russian forces killed civilians in the Kiev suburb of Bucha “without having any reason for it”. Moscow denies accusations that it committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Kokkhovets was initially detained by authorities for alleged “hooliganism” in March last year and then charged under sweeping wartime censorship laws that Russia passed shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
Since then, at least 19,855 people have been detained in Russia for expressing anti-war views, the human rights organization OVD-info reported.
Kokkhovets partially admitted his guilt, but disagreed that his views may have been motivated by “political hatred,” OVD-info said.
RFE/RL is a news outlet funded by the US government that covers news from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East.
In 2017, the Russian authorities declared it a “foreign agent”, and in February of this year, an “undesirable” organization. It’s a step that effectively bans the media in Russia and makes those who read or share it online subject to possible prosecution.
RCE/RS have not yet commented on the Kokkhovets case.
Russia has held RFE/RL reporter Alsou Kurmasheva, who holds dual Russian and American citizenship, in pre-trial detention since October 2023.