Russia has sentenced a 68-year-old pediatrician to over five years in prison after allegedly criticizing the Russia-Ukraine war.
Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, who was born in western Ukraine, was convicted on Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.
The case began in February when Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of Buyanova’s patients, reported that the doctor had said her son’s father—a Russian soldier reportedly killed in Ukraine—was a “legitimate target” for Ukrainian forces and had blamed Moscow for the war.
Buyanova, 68, denied these accusations when she was arrested in February and has insisted she never made the comments.
In addition, Buyanova’s defense argued that the prosecution lacked evidence of any such conversation and alleged that her accuser fabricated the story out of animosity toward Ukrainians, according to the Russian independent news site Mediazona, which reported all of the hearings in the trial.
Her lawyer, Oscar Cherdzhyev, told reporters afterward that the verdict was “unexpectedly harsh” and “monstrously cruel.”
“We didn’t expect this,” he added.
The case attracted public outcry, with over 6,500 people signing a petition demanding her release as her supporters criticized the ruling as excessively punitive.
In a tearful closing statement, Buyanova refuted the allegations, expressing deep hurt and stating, “A doctor, especially a pediatrician, is not capable of wishing harm to a child, his mother or traumatizing the child’s psyche. Only a monster is capable of this—and of the words that I allegedly said to them,” Mediazona quoted Buyanova as saying.
This comes as “spreading false information” about the army has been a criminal offense since March 2022 after Russia adopted a series of laws. This has led to over a thousand cases of political arrests on charges related to speaking or acting out against the war, according to OVD-Info, one of Russia’s leading rights groups that tracks political arrests.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has gone to great lengths to pursue individuals critical of the war. High-profile dissidents have faced severe sentences, with some prominent figures sent abroad as part of a recent prisoner swap with Western countries.
In addition, detentions on charges of spying and collecting sensitive data have become increasingly frequent in Russia since the start of the war.
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