Doctor who criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine was found guilty and sentenced to more than 5 years in prison

TALLINN, Estonia — A doctor accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted on Tuesday of spreading misinformation about the Russian military and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison, part of the Kremlin’s relentless crackdown on dissidents.

68 year old Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to the authorities. Akinshina claimed that Buyanova told her and her son that her father, a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for Kiev troops and blamed Moscow for the war.

A video of an angry Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicized, and the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, personally demanded that a criminal case be opened against the doctor.

Buyanova, who was born in Western Ukraine, denied the accusation and claimed that she had never told the accusations against her. In his tearful closing speech to the court last week, he asked the court to acquit him.

His defense argued that the prosecution did not present evidence that the alleged conversation took place, including any recordings, and claimed that his accuser made up the story out of hostility towards Ukrainians, according to independent news site Mediazona. hearings at the hearing.

In her closing speech to the court, Buyanova broke down, saying it was “painful” to read the charges in the indictment.

“A doctor, especially a pediatrician, cannot wish to harm a child, his mother, or traumatize the child’s psyche. Only a monster could do this and the words I allegedly said to them,” Mediazona quoted him as saying.

“Spreading false information” about the military has become a criminal offense since March 2022, when Russia adopted a set of laws banning any public statements that deviate from the official narrative about the occupation. Authorities began to actively use them against critics and protesters.

More than 1,000 people are involved in criminal cases on charges of speaking or taking action against the war, according to OVD-Info, one of Russia’s leading human rights groups that tracks political arrests.