In a cellphone video released on social media on Friday, court onlookers can be seen cheering on 60-year-old Alexei Gorinov, who can be seen inside a glass case holding up a sign written in Russian that reads: “You still need this war ;”
A bailiff tried to block the display of the poster, before ejecting everyone from the courtroom for “disturbing the peace”.
Gorinov, a Moscow district councilor and lawyer, became the first person in Russia to be jailed under a new “fake information” law.
Gorinov told a meeting of the Krasnoselsky district council on March 15, where a children’s painting competition was discussed, that Russia is waging an aggressive war against Ukraine.
Gorinov, 60, a Moscow city councilor, holds a handwritten sign that reads: “Do you still need this war?” in court on Friday. Agence France-Presse via Getty Images Gorynov, pictured handcuffed in a glass cage, was arrested in March after denouncing the killing of children in Ukraine during a council meeting. AFP via Getty Images
“What kind of children’s drawing competition can we talk about on Children’s Day… when we have children dying every day?” he says in a recording of the meeting posted on YouTube.
“I believe in all his efforts [Russian] Civil society should aim only at stopping the war and withdrawing Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine.”
Gorinov was arrested under Article 207.3 of the criminal code, which was passed shortly after Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine to ban the “intentional dissemination of false information about the Russian military,” defined as information that deviates from official reports.
“They took away my spring, they took away my summer, and now they’ve taken another seven years of my life,” Gorinov’s supporters said he said at Friday’s sentencing hearing.
Undeterred by the harsh sentence, Gorinov repeated his call for an end to the war — and warned of a return to a repressive Stalinist regime in Russia.
In his final speech, the activist said: “War, by whatever synonym you call it, is the last, dirtiest, vile, unworthy of the title of man.”
He said: “I thought Russia had exhausted its limits in wars in the 20th century. However, our present is Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel. Do these names mean anything to you?
The defiant activist doubled down on the call to end the war. Alexander Astakhov
“You, the accusers, take care and don’t say later that you didn’t know anything.”
The anti-Kremlin activist told the court: “I am convinced of this: war is the fastest means of dehumanization, when the line between good and evil is blurred. War is always violence and blood, torn bodies and severed limbs. It is always death. I do not accept it and reject it.”
In his courtroom speech, Gorinov mocked Putin, stating: “For five months, Russia has been conducting hostilities on the territory of a neighboring state, misleadingly calling it a ‘special military operation.’ We were promised victory and glory.
“Why, then, do so many of my fellow citizens feel shame and guilt? Why did many people leave Russia and continue to leave? And why did our country suddenly have so many enemies?”
He argued that he had a constitutional right to express his opinion.
“During the years of Stalinist terror, my grandfather was accused of calling for the overthrow of the Soviet system, in the creation and strengthening of which he participated in the most direct way,” Gorinov said.
He said his grandfather lived to be rehabilitated into society half a century later.
Gorinov became the first person to be jailed under a new law to combat “fake information” about Russia’s actions in Ukraine. AFP via Getty Images
“Hopefully my recovery will take much less time,” he said. “But for now, I’m here in the courtroom.”
Gorinov said he had manned the barricades when the Soviet Union fell, supporting democracy.
“If they had said then that in 30 years I would be tried by a criminal court for my words, for my opinion, I would not have believed it,” he said.
“In the meantime, I wish our government some prudence,” he said. “I wish the judges wisdom. I wish stability to all who are experiencing a new wave of repression, as well as to the entire Ukrainian people.
“For myself, I wish one day to become a future Russian ambassador to Ukraine.”
Speaking to reporters outside court, Gorinov’s wife of 32 years explained that her husband was “not the type of person” to keep quiet, independent broadcaster SOTA Vision TV reported.
“And leaving the country is kind of a longing… that’s why we’re staying with you,” he said.
Gorinov’s lawyer said he planned to appeal the verdict and take the case all the way to Russia’s Constitutional Court to challenge the “false information” law.
Leonid Volkov, chief of staff to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said the sentence was intended to make an example of Gorinov and others using the word “war” to refer to the invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls “special.” . military operation”.
Many people were given administrative fines for protesting the war, but lawyer Pavel Chikov told Telegram that only two others had been convicted of criminal offenses under Russia’s draconian “fake news” law, and that one was also fined another suspended prison sentence.
By postal cables
