Yashin's detention is extended by a Russian court by six months
Yashin's detention is extended by a Russian court by six months
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MOSCOW: A Russian court on Wednesday extended by six months the house arrest of opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who faces a 10-year sentence for criticizing President Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine.

A 39-year-old member of the Moscow city council is on trial as part of an unprecedented crackdown on dissent in Russia, where most opposition activists are either imprisoned or exiled.
If found guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

After Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, Yashin refused to leave and frequently denounced the Kremlin's assault on his 1.3 million-subscriber YouTube channel.

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At the conclusion of the hearing, Yashin smiled and waved a peace sign while seated in the defendant's glass box in Moscow's Meshchansky District Court, while some of his supporters applauded.

Yashin vowed to stay in the country during his court appearance, but the judge extended his detention for six months.

I am willing to pay with my freedom because I love this country and want to be here. I am a patriotic Russian, he declared.
According to prosecutors, Yashin's actions "significantly harmed Russia" and "increased political tensions during the special military operation" – Moscow's term for its invasion of Ukraine – which warranted his continued detention.

Vadim Prokhorov, one of the opposition activist's lawyers, claimed that the extension of Yashin's detention until 10 May was illegal. Yashin appeared relaxed and tried to put on a brave face during the hearing.

He smiled at his parents in the front row, dressed in a dark green hoodie and jeans. Once he inquired of his father about watching the Tuesday night World Cup game between Argentina and Saudi Arabia, and they both laughed together in response.

As the hearing drew to a close, a fight broke out between court personnel and Yashin's father and the jury was being escorted out of the courtroom; It appears that this happened after the guard ordered his mother to stop talking to her son.

For several minutes, the men fight in the hallway, with Yashin's father at one point falling to the ground. Before the guards let him go, they briefly took him to another room.

The next hearing is expected on November 29.
Yashin was close to Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician killed near the Kremlin in 2015, and is a supporter of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Yashin was stopped while walking in a Moscow park in the summer.

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According to a law passed after Putin launched the operation in Ukraine, he is accused of disseminating "fake" information about the Russian military.

Yashin discussed the "killing of civilians" in the Bucha suburb of Kyiv, where the Russian military has been accused of war crimes, in an April YouTube stream.
It was a "massacre", he said.

His court supporters claimed that the government was using draconian laws to silence opponents of the military operation in Ukraine.
Anastasia Leonova, 48, argued that the law was clearly anti-legal.
"It's just to silence people,"

His 20-year-old daughter Olga claimed that Yashin's YouTube stream was enjoyed by her family.
Every Thursday, "we would gather in the kitchen to watch them," she recalled. "My 87-year-old grandmother, my mother and me."

Independent media organizations in Russia have either suspended or closed their operations as Moscow began to intervene in Ukraine.

Many freelance journalists are among the thousands of Russians who have left the country.
In July, another member of the Moscow City Council, Aleksey Goryunov, received a seven-year prison sentence for opposing the offensive in Ukraine.

The 61-year-old questioned plans for a children's art competition in his district, while "children are dying every day" in Ukraine.
Almost all of Putin's known political opponents have either left the country or are currently imprisoned.

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Navalny, 46, is currently serving a nine-year sentence for embezzlement, which is widely believed to be politically motivated. Their political groups are now banned.

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