Two Russian anti-war poets, one of whom accused police of rape, have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms on charges of “inciting hatred” toward soldiers, the independent news website Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Thursday.
A Moscow court sentenced two men to prison for participating in a reading of poems against the Russian invasion of Ukraine in public, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty reported on Dec. 28.
Moscow court sentences two Russian poets to prison terms ranging from five and a half to seven years for taking part in a reading against the conflict in Ukraine. Thousands of Russians, opponents and ordinary citizens alike, have been convicted by the courts for criticizing the offensive against Ukraine. Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba were arrested in September 2022 after participating in a public reading in Moscow on Triumfalnaya Square, near the monument to the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, a meeting point for dissidents since Soviet times.
A Tverskoy court in Moscow has convicted Artem Kamardin, a participant in the Mayakovsky Readings, to seven years in prison for reading poetry against Russia's invasion of Ukraine; the second defendant in the case, Yegor Shtovba, received five and a half years in prison.