Russia jails singer for burning passport in protest of attack on Ukraine

By : AFP

Date: 27 December 2024 7:33pm WAT

Ukrainian soldiers of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion Da Vinci rest during combat medical training in the Dnipropetrovsk region, on December 12, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. - The general prosecutor's office declined to provide statistics to AFP, but Ukrainian media and officials have said more than 100,000 Ukrainian troops have left their units without permission or been charged. In an effort to address manpower shortages, Ukrainian lawmakers in August approved an amnesty for first time offenders who voluntarily returned to their units. Both the 47th and 53rd brigades in December announced they would welcome back servicemen who had left the front without permission, saying, "We all make mistakes." Prosecutors said in early December that 8,000 servicemen that went absent without leave or deserted had returned in November alone. Still, Oleksiy, company commander of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion, said the numbers of Ukrainian troops fleeing fighting without permissions is growing, partly because many of the most motivated fighters have already been killed or wounded. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)

A Russian court on Friday sentenced a singer who burned his passport in protest at Moscow’s Ukraine offensive to five and a half years in prison.

Eduard Sharlot, 26, was found guilty of “publicly insulting” the religious feelings of believers and “rehabilitating Naziism” by a court in the Volga city of Samara in a case over videos he published online, the RIA Novosti state news agency reported.

Moscow has sentenced dozens of people to years in prison for publicly opposing its offensive on Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

The singer had posted a video in June 2023 in which he burned his Russian passport in protest at the military campaign.

In another video he nailed a photograph of Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church that has staunchly backed the offensive, to a crucifix.

Sharlot initially left Russia for Armenia after the offensive, but was arrested at Saint Petersburg airport in November 2023 upon his attempted return to Russia.

Since ordering troops into Ukraine, Russia has tightened its laws against domestic dissent and stepped up a campaign to arrest and imprison people who criticise its actions in Ukraine.

Virtually all Kremlin opponents are either dead, in exile or behind bars.