Russian pediatrician sentenced to 5,5 years in prison for comment on war in Ukraine

On the eve of the sentencing, Nadezhda Buyanova, handcuffed, was brought into the courtroom and placed in a metal and glass cage. It was through this glass that the 68-year-old pediatrician gave a short interview to a correspondent Air force.

Photo: Rodion Zhitin | Dreamstime.com

"This is absurd, simply absurd," the doctor said. "I can't comprehend what's happening to me yet. Maybe later."

The mother of a 7-year-old boy treated by Buyanova filed a police report against the pediatrician. The woman claimed that the doctor had spoken negatively about the boy's father, who died in Ukraine. He fought as part of the occupation forces, and Buyanova said that Russian occupiers were legitimate targets for Ukrainian troops.

On the subject: An American was sentenced to 21 years in prison in the Russian Federation: a Texan came to visit the children who were taken away by his Russian ex-wife

Buyanova denies saying such things and insists there is no audio or video recording to support her claims. However, she was arrested in February and charged with spreading false information about the Russian military. After a brief period of house arrest, the doctor was transferred to a pretrial detention facility.

In the courtroom, before the judge came out to announce the verdict, the agency's staff ordered the film crews to leave the room and escorted the journalists out into the hallway. A few minutes later, the door to the courtroom opened again.

"Five and a half years!" exclaimed one of Buyanova's supporters from the audience. "They're sending her to a penal colony for five and a half years!"

"The sentence is monstrously harsh," said the doctor's lawyer, Oskar Cherdzhiev. "We did not expect this, even taking into account what is happening in Russia now. Just a few words were enough to put a person behind bars for such a long time."

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Alina, one of the activists supporting Buyanova in court, said: "It was important for me that Nadezhda saw that there were many of us here today. If a miracle doesn't happen (and it didn't, even though we were hoping for it), it will be a little easier for her. It's very difficult to talk about this. We are all in shock."

The law against spreading false information about the armed forces is one of several tough laws passed in Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The jailing of a Moscow pediatrician is further evidence that in Russia, war abroad is fueling repression at home.

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