A court in Moscow has sentenced a municipal council member to seven years in prison for his remarks opposing the war in Ukraine.
The unprecedented sentence raises the stakes for Kremlin critics in Russia who speak out against Moscow’s invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Alexei Gorinov was found guilty Friday of spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian military.
The offense carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison under a law the Russian parliament rubber-stamped a week after the invasion of Ukraine.
A legal aid group says the 60-year-old member of Moscow’s Krasnoselsky municipal council is the first person sentenced to serve time behind bars for a conviction on that charge.