– Five and a half years! – shouted one of Ms. Buyanova’s supporters in the public gallery. “She was sent to a penal colony for five and a half years!”
“The sentence is terribly harsh,” Dr. Oskar Chardzhiev’s lawyer told me.
“We did not expect this, even taking into account what is happening today (in Russia). A few words turned out to be enough to put someone behind bars for such a long period of time.”
Alina, one of the group of supporters of the doctor in the court, said: “It was important for me that Nadzia saw that many of us came today, so that if a miracle did not happen – and we were all still hoping for a miracle – it would be a little easier for her.”
“It is very difficult to talk about it. We are all shocked.”
The Anti-Military Disinformation Act is one of several tough pieces of legislation passed in Russia after the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to silence or punish criticism of the war.
The imprisonment of the Moscow pediatrician is the latest sign that for Russia, the war abroad is fueling repression at home.
