MOSCOW: A court in Russia convicted a woman from a Siberian city over social media posts condemning the war in Ukraine and punished her on Friday with a steep fine even though both she and the prosecution asked for a prison sentence.
Marina Novikova, a 65-year-old lawyer, was found guilty of “spreading false information” about the Russian army, which was made a criminal offence after President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine more than 14 months ago. Novikova’s posts on the messaging app Telegram decried the invasion and criticised the Russian Government.
The court in Seversk, Novikova’s hometown, imposed a fine of over one million rubles (over USD 12,400), Russian human rights and legal aid group OVD-Info quoted her husband, Alexandr Gavrik, as saying.
Prosecutors had requested a three-year prison sentence. Novikova herself pleaded with the court to send her to prison rather than the alternative: a fine of at least 700,000 rubles (USD 8,700) that the law allowed. She said she didn’t have the money to pay a fine of that size.
“I am prepared to pay the price for the right to remain a human … because I understand that there will be no acquittal,” Novikova was quoted by Russian media as saying in court. An average salary in Siberia’s Tomsk province, where Seversk is located, is 56,000 rubles, or just under USD 700, according to official government statistics. OVD-Info, which monitors protests and tracks arrests, said the case against Novikova was among the first launched under the new law that prohibited spreading false information.