Russian man sentenced to 5 years of hard labor for conducting street interview about Ukraine war

A Russian man, Yuri Kokhovets, has been sentenced to five years of forced labor for spreading “deliberately false information” about the army in a street interview with U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The Moscow city courts service announced the sentence against Kokhovets, 39, after RFE/RL journalists approached him in July 2022 for a “vox pop” interview on the need for a detente between Russia and NATO countries.

During the interview, Kokhovets criticized the Russian government for starting conflicts and denied any aggression from NATO. He also accused Russian forces of killing civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha without reason, a claim that Moscow denies.

Kokhovets was initially detained for alleged “hooliganism” in March last year and later charged under wartime censorship laws enacted by Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Rights group OVD-Info reported that over 19,000 people have been detained in Russia for expressing anti-war views since then.

While Kokhovets partially admitted guilt, he disagreed that his views were driven by “political hatred.” RFE/RL, a U.S. government-funded news outlet, has faced backlash from Russian authorities, being labeled a “foreign agent” in 2017 and deemed an “undesirable” organization in February this year.

The case of Kokhovets highlights the ongoing crackdown on dissenting voices in Russia, with RFE/RL reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, also being held in pre-trial detention since October 2023. The situation raises concerns about freedom of speech and press freedom in the country.