Iuri Malev, a Russian-American citizen imprisoned since December 2023, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for making fun online of a banner that symbolizes the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War (1939-1945). ), a central element of Russian patriotic ideology.
The crime committed in two posts he published in June 2022 and May 2023 on the Russian social network Odnoklasniki was "rehabilitation of Nazism", according to the Telegram digital platform channel of the Saint Petersburg city court. According to the court, Malev acknowledged the facts.
The first publication, containing "coarse language", showed the St. George ribbon, a symbol used by Russians to commemorate the Second World War, and the face of a person of "non-traditional sexual orientation", the term used in Russia to refer to refer to LGBTQ people (Lesbian, 'Gay', Bisexual, Transgender and 'Queer').
The second publication showed an image of a corpse with the following words written over it: "Here's how to wear the St. George ribbon."
The court described Malev as a security guard working in New York.
Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the Soviet victory over the Nazis at the center of his patriotic speech, accusing the West of wanting to rewrite history by devaluing, in his opinion, the importance of the role of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in defeat of Nazi Germany.
Several North American and Russian-American citizens are currently imprisoned in Russia, including journalist Evan Gershkovich, falsely accused, according to the United States, his friends and his employer, the daily Wall Street Journal, of espionage.
Negotiations are underway for a prisoner exchange between the Russians and the Americans.
Since beginning its war against Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has engaged in a relentless campaign of repression of its critics, and many anonymous and public figures have been sentenced to prison terms.
Today, this was also the case of Russian blogger Anna Bajutova, sentenced to five and a half years in prison for reading, in April 2022, on the digital platform Twitch, testimonies from inhabitants of the Ukrainian city of Bucha, near Kiev, about the massacre of hundreds of civilians attributed to Russian troops, before withdrawing from the region, in the spring of that year -- accusations that Moscow rejects, saying it was a Western act.
"Revolting, disgusting!", reacted the 30-year-old to the sentence, from the glass compartment reserved for the defendants in the court, according to the French news agency AFP, present at the trial.
The Ostankino district court, north of Moscow, found Bajutova guilty of "disseminating false information" about alleged crimes by the Russian Army in Ukraine, on her channel, YokoBovich, on the live video service Twitch.
"It's a severe sentence, we're going to appeal. She's not a dangerous criminal," declared the blogger's defense lawyer, Andrei Nevrev.
"We expected a less severe sentence. It's hard, scary," Bajutova's partner, Alexandre Demchuk, 28, told the media.
"Anna wouldn't leave the house, she suffers from agoraphobia. But she's strong, I hope she can overcome this," he added.
Demchuk explained that Anna Bajutova had deleted her video after it was published, before the couple left for Kazakhstan for a few months. When they returned to Russia in the summer of 2023, nationalist bloggers who supported the war against Ukraine republished the video and filed a complaint.
Two months later, police officers went to Bajutova's home and confiscated her audiovisual equipment. Her Twitch channel has been blocked.
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