\n
\n
Moscow, Aug 24 (AP) The former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city was arrested Wednesday on charges of discrediting the country’s military, part of a crackdown on critics of Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Police arrested Yevgeny Roizman, 59 who served as the mayor of Yekaterinburg in 2013-2018, following searches at his apartment and office.<\/p>\n
Roizman told reporters the case against him has been launched under a new law adopted after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.<\/p>\n
He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n
Russian courts fined Roizman three times earlier this year on similar charges, paving the way for a criminal case the law authorizes for repeat offenses.<\/p>\n
Roizman, a sharp critic of the Kremlin, is one of the most visible and charismatic opposition figures in Russia.<\/p>\n
During his tenure as mayor, he enjoyed broad popularity in Yekaterinburg, a city of 1.5 million in the Ural Mountains.<\/p>\n
Shortly after his arrest, a few local residents picketed in his support.<\/p>\n
Cautious words of support also came from Roizman’s longtime political rival, the governor of Russia’s Sverdlovsk region.<\/p>\n
We used to be and continue to be political opponents. The law is the law. But, like any person, he deserves fairness and respect, and I hope he gets them, Gov. Yevgeny Kuyvashev said in a video statement posted on Telegram.<\/p>\n
While police escorted him from his apartment, Roizman told reporters that he would likely be brought to Moscow for investigation.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, his lawyer said that the politician was officially detained for 48 hours.<\/p>\n
Roizman said that the criminal charges against him were triggered by him calling the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine an invasion.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin describes it as a special military operation.<\/p>\n
“I was saying that everywhere, and I will say it now, the politician added.<\/p>\n
Days after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russia’s Kremlin-controlled parliament approved legislation that outlawed disparaging the military and the spread of false information about the military operations in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Russian courts have increasingly handed out fines and, occasionally, prison terms to critics of Moscow’s action in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
According to Net Freedoms, a legal aid group focusing on free speech cases, as of mid-August there were up to 4,000 administrative cases on charges of disparaging the armed forces.<\/p>\n
Another human rights group, OVD-Info, counted a total of 90 criminal cases on the charges of spreading false information about the military in the six months since Feb. 24.<\/p>\n
The group’s report released Wednesday also pointed to 16,437 detentions for protesting against the military campaign over the past six months.<\/p>\n
Pavel Chikov, a leading Russian human rights advocate, said Wednesday that Russian courts have so far heard 3,500 administrative cases for discrediting the military and found most defendants guilty.<\/p>\n
All of them could face criminal charges like Roizman if they speak out again against Russia’s operation in Ukraine, Chikov noted.<\/p>\n
Until his arrest, Roizman was one of the most visible opposition figures in Russia who had not been been jailed or fled the country under pressure from authorities.<\/p>\n
Two other prominent opposition politicians, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, were arrested under the same law as Roizman and face up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.<\/p>\n
Similar charges were recently brought against eight close associates of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.<\/p>\n
All of them have left Russia after they became the subjects of multiple criminal investigations. (AP)<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow, Aug 24 (AP) The former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city was arrested Wednesday on charges of discrediting the country’s military, part of a crackdown on critics of Moscow’s military action in Ukraine. Police arrested Yevgeny Roizman, 59 who served as the mayor of Yekaterinburg in 2013-2018, following searches at his apartment and office. Roizman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}