Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the Kremlin has stopped criticizing it. According to human rights activist OVD-Info, at least 482 people have been charged under Russia’s tough new wartime censorship laws. About 136 were sent to prison.

HotNews.ro and Al Jazeera present the most notable cases of the past 13 months.

Oleg Orlov, 69 years old, co-president of the “Memorial” Center for the Protection of Human Rights.

Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights NGO, announced that one of its main representatives, Oleg Orlov, was arrested Tuesday in Moscow and charged with “discrediting the Russian armed forces,” CNN reported.

He was later released on bail.

According to the information of the “Memorial” organization, Orlov’s case was initiated due to the fact of repeated discrediting of the Russian military.

When asked by a journalist why he was detained, Orlov answered: “It is connected with the accusations against me of supporting Nazism. An idiotic idea!”.

Councilor Oleksiy Horinov, sentenced to 7 years in prison

A Russian court found Moscow municipal deputy Oleksiy Horinov guilty of spreading “false information about the Russian military” on the grounds of “political enmity.” A Russian dissident who condemned Moscow’s “war” and “aggression” against Ukraine was sentenced to 7 years in prison, AFP reports.

Oleksiy Horinov sat in a glass cell during the trial (Photo: Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP / Profimedia)

It was the first long prison term handed down under new laws restricting criticism of the war, writes The Guardian.

Gorinov’s lawyer was arrested in April for condemning Moscow’s “war” and “aggression” against Ukraine on March 15 during a city council meeting in his district, which was filmed and broadcast on YouTube, which is an aggravating circumstance for the court.

Ilya Yasin, a well-known opponent of Putin and the war in Ukraine

39-year-old Ilya Yashin, who at the time of his arrest was a deputy of the local council of Moscow, is accused of “inciting hatred” with false information about the Russian army, for which a penalty of ten years in prison is provided.

Yasin was a close relative of opponent Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in 2015, as well as anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, imprisoned since early 2021 after a poisoning operation he blamed on the Kremlin.

He is accused of condemning the “civilian deaths” in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, near Kyiv, during a live address on YouTube accusing the Russian military of abuses that Moscow denies.

poser Ilya Yashin, on trial in Russia (photo: Alexander NEMENOV / AFP / Profimedia)

During the hearing, Yassin asked to be released during the trial, claiming that he had no intention of evading justice by leaving the country, an AFP journalist reported.

“If I wanted to run for office, I would have done it a long time ago,” he said from a glass cage set aside by the defendant.

Volodymyr Kara-Murza: an associate of Nemtsov who condemned the invasion

Another Russian opposition figure who has refused to move is British-educated Volodymyr Kara-Murza, a close associate of slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Kara-Murza was jailed last April after being charged with treason for a speech he gave abroad condemning the invasion – a crime punishable by 25 years.

Kara-Murza survived two alleged poisoning attempts in 2015 and 2017, which left her suffering from a nerve disease called polyneuropathy. His health has deteriorated behind bars, and he has recently been too ill to appear in court. His trial continues.

Maria Ponomarenko: Journalist who mourned the Mariupol airstrike

Russian journalist Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in prison for accusing Russian aircraft of bombing a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol last April, where women and children were hiding, Reuters and CNN reported.

Before the verdict, she told the court: “To attack a neighbor is a crime.”

The word “children” was scrawled in giant letters on the ground near a theater in Donetsk region in the hope that it would deter such an attack.

Maria Ponomarenko was sentenced to six years in prison (Photo: Kommersant Photo Agency / ddp USA / Profimedia)

Lawyers for Ponomarenko, a mother of two young children, said she had serious mental health problems during her detention and accused the authorities of psychological torture.

Oleksandra Skotsilenko: The supermarket activist faces 10 years in prison

Oleksandra (or Sasha for short) Skochylenko is a 32-year-old artist, animator and musician from St. Petersburg, as well as the author of the popular “Depression Book”, which seeks to destigmatize mental illness.

Last April, Sasha was accused of replacing price tags in a local supermarket with small cards with information about the war in Ukraine, including the death toll in the Mariupol theater. For this act, she can lose up to 10 years of life in prison.

During the detention and waiting for the trial, Sasha’s health worsened. Human rights groups reported that she suffers from celiac disease, and the prison administration denied her proper nutrition.

Oleksandr Martynov and Lyudmila Razumova: the married couple is accused of “fake news”

In March 2022, a married couple from the Tver region, Oleksandr Martynov and Lyudmila Razumova, were accused of spreading “fake news” about Russia’s “military operation” in Ukraine in their social media posts.

They were also later charged with vandalism for allegedly leaving anti-war and anti-Putin signs in several villages. On March 17 of this year, Martynov was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, and Razumova was sentenced to seven years. It is reported that Razumova spent most of her pre-trial detention in solitary confinement.

Artem Kamardin: The poet was allegedly beaten by the Russian militia

A Russian court ordered the imprisonment of three young poets who took part in an artistic moment against the mobilization to fight in Ukraine, one of them said that he was raped by the police during the arrest, writes AFP.

At a rally in Moscow last September, poet and activist Artem Kamardin read an anti-war poem that ended with the line: “Glory to Kyivan Rus, Novorossiya, go to hell!”. – the use of historical terms for the capital of Ukraine, respectively, and terms from the time of the Russian Empire, which Moscow uses for the territory of southeastern Ukraine, which it is trying to annex.

A few days later, Moscow police stormed Kamardin’s apartment, where his girlfriend Oleksandra Popova and another activist lived.

According to Amnesty International, Popova said the police beat and raped Kamardin with a dumbbell before forcing Popova to watch a video of the act.

Later, a video was circulated on Telegram, in which a battered and battered Kamardin apologized for his words. (more cases on Al Jazeera)