TALLINN, Estonia — A Moscow court docket has ordered the arrest of distinguished movie producer Alexander Rodnyansky and theater director Ivan Vyrypaev for “spreading false information” concerning the Russian military.
The preliminary court docket hearings towards Rodnyansky and Vyrypaev had been held on 27 April, however not reported by the court docket till Wednesday.
According to the court docket’s press service, Rodnyansky and Vyrypaev, who’re exterior Russia, shall be positioned in custody as soon as Russian authorities handle to detain them or to get them extradited. Russia’s Interior Ministry moreover put Vyrypaev on the federal needed listing.
Kyiv-born Rodnyansky has been among the many most influential figures in Russian cinema in latest a long time. He left Russia after the beginning of the nation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has repeatedly spoken brazenly towards the battle. In October 2022, Russia’s Justice Ministry declared Rodnyansky a “foreign agent.”
Popular playwright, director and actor Vyrypaev has been residing and dealing in Warsaw for a number of years and has additionally spoken in opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Also on Wednesday, a Moscow court docket handed opposition determine and anti-war activist Mikhail Krieger a seven-year jail sentence.
Krieger was arrested in November on fees of justifying terrorism and inciting hatred with the specter of violence, referring to social media posts from 2020 by which he praised the organizers of assaults at Federal Security Service buildings and referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hanging. Prosecutors on Tuesday requested a nine-year sentence.
In court docket, simply previous to his sentencing, Krieger mentioned that he was being prosecuted for his “anti-war and now openly pro-Ukrainian position.”
Since Putin despatched troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the federal government has waged a crackdown on dissent unseen because the Soviet period.
The Kremlin’s sweeping marketing campaign of repression has criminalized criticism of the battle. In addition to fines and jail sentences, these accused have been fired, blacklisted, branded as “foreign agents” or have fled Russia.
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