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STORY: :: A Russian court sentences a paediatrician to 5-1/2 years in prison for criticizing the war in Ukraine

:: A patient's mother denounced the doctor in a video shared on social media

:: November 12, 2024

:: Moscow, Russia

:: Nadezhda Buyanova, Paediatrician

"I think that it's absurd, absurd. All of this... I think that it's absurd. I'd like to say I'm glad to see all of you, I'm happy that you came, it means you're not indifferent to my fate."

:: Leonid Solovyev, Buyanova's lawyer

"It's hard to comment on anything. I can't say I expected anything else, unfortunately, there is no justice now, it has not happened, let's hope it happens later. In any case, the truth remains, we hope it will be defended later."

Prosecutors last week requested Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, be jailed for six years for spreading "fakes" about the Russian army.

The case against her was personally launched in February by the head of Russia's Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes.

It was prompted by a complaint from a mother of a seven-year-old boy who had taken him to see Buyanova at her clinic. The boy's father, from whom the woman was divorced, had been killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

The woman, Anastasia Akinshina, recorded a video in which she said that Buyanova had referred to her child's father as a "legitimate target of Ukraine."

The video was posted by Mash, a Telegram channel with over 3 million subscribers that is close to Russian security services.

Buyanova denied making the statements.

Over 1,000 people have been criminally prosecuted in Russia for speaking out against the war, according to rights project OVD-Info, while over 20,000 have been detained for protesting.

Buyanova's case is part of a wider trend in Russia of people denouncing each other for alleged political crimes.

OVD-Info has recorded 21 such criminal prosecutions in the more than two and a half years since the start of the conflict.

Reuters has requested comment from the Russian Justice Ministry about the OVD-Info data and the use of denunciations to support prosecutions, including Buyanova's.

A group of Russian doctors wrote an open letter in Buyanova's defense, calling the denunciation a "disgrace."

A petition for her release has garnered over 6,000 signatures.