“The Invasion of the Ukraine”. This simple phrase made Yevgeny Roizman end up in prison this Wednesday. A few hours later, this Thursday, a Russian court ordered the release of the former mayor of the fourth largest city in the country pending investigation and trial of the charges he faces for criticizing the military operation of Russia.
Roizman, 59, who was mayor of Yekaterinburg from 2013 to 2018, has been cleared to go free, though he faces up to three years in prison if convicted. For now, he has been banned from attending public events, using the internet, phone or mail, and communicating with anyone other than his lawyers and close relatives.
During his detention, Roizman told reporters that the case against him had been brought under a new law passed after Russia sent troops to Ukraine in February. Russian courts fined Roizman three times earlier this year on similar charges, paving the way for a repeat criminal case.
His arrest has triggered protests in his support in recent hours, and a protester has been arrested and sentenced to 15 days in jail.
Roizman said the criminal charges against him were triggered by calling the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine an “invasion”, while the latter describes it as a “special military operation”.
Days after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, Russia’s Kremlin-controlled parliament passed a law making it illegal to allegedly disparage the Russian military or spread “false information” about the military operation. of the country in Ukraine.
Russian courts have increasingly handed out fines and sometimes prison sentences to critics of Moscow’s action in Ukraine. OVD-Info, a legal aid group that tracks political arrests in Russia, has counted 90 criminal cases on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military since February 24.
According to Net Freedoms, another legal aid group focused on freedom of expression cases, as of mid-August there were as many as 4,000 administrative cases for charges of contempt for the military.
Roizman remains one of the few visible opposition figures in Russia who has not yet been jailed or fled the country under pressure from the authorities. Two other prominent opposition politicians, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, were arrested under the same law as Roizman and face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Similar charges were recently brought against eight close associates of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Putin’s best-known critic. All of them have left Russia after being the subject of multiple criminal investigations.
