Russian opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov charged with spreading ‘disinformation’ for video about civilian deaths in Ukraine
The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against opposition politician and former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov for allegedly spreading “disinformation” about the Russian army, according to a post on Gudkov’s Telegram channel.
The case was launched in response to a clip Gudkov published on YouTube in April 2022 under the title “What has Putin’s war in Ukraine led to?” According to prosecutors, the video contains “false information” about the mass murder of civilians in Bucha, Irpin, and Borodyanka.
According to the Telegram channel VChK OGPU, state investigators consider the following statement from the clip to contain “disinformation”:
Now the Russian army is terrorizing the recalcitrant population. It continues to shell cities, aiming at residential buildings and train stations. In Bucha, Irpin, and Borodyanka, Russian soldiers left mountains of corpses. A professional army cannot operate by such methods. This is the very definition of genocide. If the Kremlin’s goal was to terrorize and kill civilians, then [Putin spokesman Dmitry] Peskov is, of course, right: Russia has successfully proven to the whole world that its leadership is no better than Al-Qaeda.
Under the charges, Gudkov, who fled Russia in June 2021, could be sentenced in absentia to as long as 10 years in prison.
