Russia jails lawyer for 7 years for criticizing Ukraine campaign

Russia on Thursday sentenced a senior lawyer who had defended a jailed journalist in a high-profile case to seven years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s Ukraine offensive on social media.

Dmitry Talantov, 64, was arrested in July 2022 after describing the acts of the Russian army in the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Bucha as being reminiscent of “Nazi practices.”

Talantov was for many years president of the Udmurtia lawyer association and in 2021 was the defense lawyer for Ivan Safronov, a journalist covering military affairs whose arrest shook Russia’s media community.

Safronov is now serving a 22-year sentence on treason charges.

A court in the Udmurt Republic found Talantov guilty of actions aimed at spreading hatred and of knowingly distributing “fake” information on the Russian army — charges made possible with a censorship law adopted shortly after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.

In an emotional speech in court, Talantov said he feared he would not survive the prison term, but also stood by his convictions.

“I am 64 and it is hard for me to imagine that I will come out of prison alive,” Talantov said, according to an audio of the speech published by rights group Perviy Otdel.

Talantov has been in pre-trial detention for two and a half years and has spent two years in an isolation cell, saying the Russian national anthem blasts out there in the evening and at dawn, before a staunchly pro-Kremlin radio show is played.

“I am waiting for words of peace. They do not come,” he said.

He described his conditions as a “Middle-Ages cell with only a (toilet) hole and a tap”, saying “time kills a person” in isolation.

His voice breaking, he addressed his wife saying: “Olga, forgive me, I love you.”

According to a letter he sent to Perviy Otdel, Talantov was arrested while at his summer home in the summer of 2022.

More than 300 lawyers had signed a petition calling for his release at the time.