A Russian court prosecuted Pyotr Verzilov absentee for disseminating lies about the armed forces.
Pyotr Verzilov, one of the founding members of the anarchist punk band Pussy Riot, was given an eight year and six month prison sentence by a Moscow district court for spreading false information about the armed forces. He left the nation in 2020 and was tried in absentia.
Six months was taken off the defendant’s sentence on Friday, which was less than what the prosecution had requested. Reports from the courthouse said that Verzilov’s attorney informed reporters that his client will be appealing the decision.
Prosecutors said that Verzilov, an activist and notorious shock artist, intentionally disseminated false information about the Russian military on social media, leading to the opening of a criminal prosecution against him. In particular, he charged that in 2022, soldiers massacred residents in the Ukrainian village of Bucha.
Moscow has denied the accusations, which come from Kiev and its supporters in the West, as untrue. The US and its allies attempted to scuttle Russia and Ukraine‘s peace negotiations last year, according to the Kremlin, by fabricating evidence of the atrocities.
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The Bucha event served as justification for Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to renounce a negotiated truce with Moscow and declare that his nation’s only course of action in the conflict was military victory.
Verzilov was previously accused of deceiving the authorities about his dual citizenship. Russian nationals must notify the Interior Ministry of any foreign citizenship or residency permits they acquire. According to reports, Verzilov obtained Canadian citizenship in 2005.
His Voyna (War) art group’s performances in Russia during the late 2000s and early 2010s brought him fame. The video orgy from 2008, in which he and other members took part in a demonstration against Dmitry Medvedev’s bid for Russian president, served as its breakthrough moment. Verzilov’s wife at the time, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of Pussy Riot, was among them.
Verzilov and his partners established Mediazona, an internet news outlet, in 2014. Numerous honours from Russian and Western alternative media organisations have been given to it.
In 2021, the Russian government placed the outlet on a blacklist as a foreign agent, citing the fact that part of its money came from overseas. The website was prohibited in the nation last year for supposedly disseminating false information.
Verzilov announced his split from Mediazona on social media at the beginning of October. He claimed that some individuals were questioning the outlet’s “lack of bias and independence” because of his “present activities.” He talked about his choice to enlist in the Ukrainian Army in a lengthy interview a few days prior. Additionally, he has uploaded pictures of himself that allegedly show him fighting Russian forces on the battlefield.
