The words with which the Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin began his last live stream on YouTube two weeks ago sound harmless outside of Russia: It is important to keep talking about the war in Ukraine, even if the news about it is four months later beginning of the war, he said.

In Russia, however, these words can already be sufficient for a criminal case, because the only officially permissible term for what is happening in Ukraine is "military special operation".

"I don't intend to use any synonyms," said Yashin in an interview with the Russian exile medium Meduza in early June: "I call the war a war."

Reinhard Veser

Editor in Politics.

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Jaschin is the best known of the few Russian opposition politicians who remained in Russia on February 24 after the Russian attack on Ukraine.

His YouTube channel has around 1.3 million subscribers.

On April 7, he spoke on April 7th about the war crimes committed by the Russian Army in Butscha near Kyiv at Kiev.

Because of this appearance, the Russian public prosecutor's office has now brought charges against Yashin.

A Moscow court was due to decide on Thursday whether Yashin should be taken into custody.

The judge excluded the public from the trial because state secrets were involved.

According to reports in the Russian-language media, several Yashin sympathizers were temporarily arrested in front of the court.

More than 160 criminal cases for protests

The basis for the indictment is a law that was passed by the Russian parliament after the beginning of the war.

It bans, under penalty of imprisonment for up to 15 years, the dissemination of information other than official information about the activities of the Russian armed forces.

As a result of this law, almost all of the remaining critical media in Russia ceased their work in the spring or relocated their headquarters abroad.

Numerous opponents of the regime have also left Russia for this reason.

Yashin stayed.

In an interview with Meduza in June, he said he wasn't even thinking about going, after he had already been sentenced to four fines for "faking" about the army.

It is important to him to stay with his listeners.

In Moscow he can also go to the court cases of his friends.

He meant Alexei Gorinov, against whom the first long prison sentence based on the “fake” paragraph was imposed on Friday last week.

When Gorinov was sentenced to seven years in prison, an article of the law was applied, according to which "fakes" about the army are considered particularly serious when disseminated by officials.

He was a member of the Krasnoselskiy District Council of Moscow, chaired by Ilya Yashin.

Yashin has been in custody for two weeks.

He was taken away on a walk in Moscow at the end of June and then sentenced to 15 days in prison.

According to his lawyer, he was accused of insulting police officers from a bush.

Before Yashin was released again on Thursday night, the charges against him became known.

This action is similar to that against the regime opponent Vladimir Kara-Mursa, who has been under investigation since the end of April for alleged "fakes" about the army.

Kara-Mursa was also initially arrested for alleged defiance of police and then detained as part of the criminal proceedings.

He is charged with statements made in a speech he gave in the United States in March.

Kara-Mursa has been twice, in 2015 and 2017,

It is not known exactly how often the “fake” paragraph has already been used.

According to the human rights portal OVD.info, since the start of the war against Ukraine in Russia, more than 160 criminal cases have been opened for protests against the war;

however, this also includes those for taking part in street protests.

The number of so-called administrative procedures, in which fines or imprisonment of up to 30 days can be imposed, is significantly higher.

In addition, the human rights activists report on numerous cases in which people were put under pressure at their workplaces because of statements against the war.