Russian justice on Wednesday sentenced Oleg Orlov, a member of the Russian non-governmental organization “Memorial” and co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, to pay a criminal fine for criticizing Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine, a sentence that is a rare leniency in Russia, a complete suppression of dissident voices, writes AFP .

Oleg Orlov, Russian activist of the “Memorial” organization.Photo: AP / AP / Profimedia

“The court found him (Oleg Orlov) guilty and imposed a sanction in the form of a fine of 150,000 rubles” (1,400 euros at the current exchange rate), the prosecutor said at the end of the court session, the AFP correspondent reports.

The Russian activist faced five years in prison.

Memorial, Russia’s oldest human rights NGO, announced in March that one of its most important representatives, 69-year-old Oleg Orlov, had been arrested in Moscow and charged with “discrediting the Russian armed forces.” He was later released on bail.

Criminal proceedings have been opened against the co-head of the Memorial human rights center, Oleg Orlov, the public organization reported on Twitter, noting that the case was initiated due to the fact of repeatedly discrediting 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!”.

Oleg Orlov published on his Facebook page an article he wrote for a French publication in November 2022 entitled “They wanted fascism. They got it.”

NGO “Memorial” was banned in Russia at the end of 2021. Last year, the organization was among the laureates of the Nobel Peace Prize for “outstanding efforts to document war crimes, human rights abuses and abuses of power.”

  • Read also: Belarus sentenced last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate to 10 years in prison

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