Russia’s Supreme Court upholds sentence of man convicted over pro-Ukraine comments
Russia’s Supreme Court has upheld the six-year prison sentence imposed on Oleksandr Antonov over online comments, according to Russian judicial authorities.
Screenshot from a court hearing in RussiaAccording to the Russian investigation, Antonov posted comments expressing support for the Ukrainian Azov Brigade and the Freedom of Russia Legion, and allegedly called for violent acts against Russian military personnel.
He was convicted under Part 2 of Article 205.2 (“Public calls for terrorist activity”) of the Russian Criminal Code and Part 2 of Article 280 (“Public calls for extremist activity”) of the same code.
A lower court sentenced Antonov to six years in prison. His defence attorney sought a reduced, non-custodial sentence, citing mitigating circumstances. However, the Supreme Court, acting as the cassation instance, dismissed the appeal. The court stated that the sentence was “proportionate” and not excessively harsh.
Russian authorities claim that Antonov holds Ukrainian, U.S. and Russian citizenship.
The conviction was handed down by Russian judge Alexander Voronov.
ZMINA monitors cases involving the prosecution of citizens of Ukraine for online speech and has previously reported on similar cases, including:
- a Sevastopol resident sentenced to five and a half years in prison over comments about the Kerch Bridge, which was illegally constructed by Russia in the temporarily occupied Crimea;
- a man detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in the temporarily occupied city of Sevastopol over online comments about the Balaklava Thermal Power Plant;
- a man detained by Russian occupation authorities in temporarily occupied Berdiansk, the Zaporizhzhia Region (Oblast), over online comments;
- a resident of the Kherson Oblast sentenced to prison in Russia over online comments;
- a woman from Melitopol, the Zaporizhzhia Region, added to Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists” over social media posts.
ZMINA previously reported that the United Nations has concluded that Russia has created an atmosphere of fear in the occupied territories of Ukraine. In occupied Crimea alone, Russian authorities consider around 7,000 people to be “unreliable” and have opened more than 1,700 cases related to dissent since 2022.
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