A Soviet-era dissident has been sentenced to 16 years in jail in Russia for his anti-war views, in a case that observers say highlights how the nation’s repression now exceeds even components of the Soviet interval.
Alexander Skobov, a 67-year-old lifelong dissident, was sentenced on Friday by a navy courtroom in St Petersburg over a social media publish supporting Ukraine’s 2022 strike on the Crimea Bridge, in addition to his alleged involvement with the foreign-based opposition group the Free Russia Discussion board.
A self-described leftwing pacifist, Skobov printed the dissident Soviet journal Perspektivy in what was then Leningrad, and spoke out towards the Soviet conflict in Afghanistan, and later Russia’s the wars in Chechnya, and, extra lately, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which started in 2014.
Within the Soviet Union, Skobov was repeatedly charged with “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” and was twice forcibly confined to psychiatric establishments. He spent a complete of six years in Soviet psychiatric wards that functioned as prisons.
His sentence on Friday successfully quantities to life imprisonment, given his age and frail well being. Skobov’s lawyer stated her shopper had diabetes, hepatitis C, bronchial bronchial asthma and glaucoma.
In a defiant remaining assertion earlier than sentencing, Skobov condemned the conflict in Ukraine, saying: “At this time I will likely be requested whether or not I plead responsible. Effectively, I’m the one making the accusation right here! I accuse the stinking corpse of a regime and the ruling Putin clique of getting ready, unleashing, and waging an aggressive conflict, of committing conflict crimes in Ukraine, of political terror in Russia, and of the ethical corruption of my individuals.”
“I ask the regime’s henchmen current right here: do you admit your guilt in being complicit in Putin’s crimes?” Skobov added.
Because the choose learn out the sentence, Skobov – seated inside a locked steel cage and guarded by safety officers – was heard shouting: “Glory to Ukraine.”
Skobov has been in detention since his arrest in April 2024. Even behind bars, he has remained politically energetic. Final June, he printed an open letter addressed to youthful Russian political prisoners. “I need the younger individuals who took the hit to know: the final Soviet dissidents stood alongside them,” he wrote within the letter, which was printed by the Novaya Gazeta outlet
The sentence Skobov was given on Friday was excessive even by the already-repressive requirements of at present’s Russia. Observers stated it highlighted how fashionable Russia had surpassed the dimensions of repression seen through the post-Stalin Soviet period.
“The draconian sentence handed right down to Alexander Skobov at present is emblematic of the conflict towards dissent wielded by Russian authorities insure the nation, in parallel to their abuse conflict in Ukraine,” stated Tanya Lokshina, an affiliate director for Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division.
“It’s significantly poignant that Skobov had spent years in a Soviet jail for having exercised his freedom of opinion all these years again – and over 4 a long time later the historical past is repeating itself,” she added.
Russia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on dissent because the begin of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a marketing campaign that has reached into almost each nook of society.
The impartial Russian outlet Proekt estimated in 2024 that the dimensions of repression beneath the Putin regime had surpassed that of the Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev, persecuting not less than 116,000 individuals over the previous six years alone.
The Skobov case additionally means that Moscow has no intention of easing repression at house towards those that oppose the conflict – even because the Kremlin claims to be pursuing peace talks over the battle in Ukraine.
In current weeks, Russian authorities have detained a string of residents who’ve criticised the conflict, starting from a movie critic to a pensioner and a number of other regional journalists. Every is going through lengthy spells in jail for social media posts condemning Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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