Russian authorities are seeking a six-year prison term for a pediatrician accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine in front of one of her patients and his mother, as reported by Russian independent news site Mediazona. The case against the 68-year-old pediatrician is one of many initiated following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, which led to a widespread crackdown on opposition activists, independent journalists, and ordinary citizens.
The pediatrician, Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, was arrested in February and later released under certain restrictions. However, she was placed in pre-trial detention two months later for allegedly violating these restrictions. The charges stemmed from an incident where a mother accused Buyanova of telling her son that his father, a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for Kyiv's troops and blamed Russia for the war.
Buyanova was charged with spreading false information about the army, a criminal offense under a law enacted shortly after the invasion. She denies the allegations, stating that she never made such statements. Her defense team argued that there was no evidence to support the alleged conversation and suggested that the accuser, who was born in Lviv, Ukraine, fabricated the story due to animosity towards Ukrainians.
During her closing statement in court, Buyanova expressed the pain of reading the accusations in the indictment and broke down in tears. The situation reflects a broader trend in Russia, with over 1,000 individuals implicated in criminal cases related to opposing or speaking out against the war in Ukraine, according to OVD-Info, a prominent rights group monitoring political arrests.
