Lucia Stein, member of the punk band “Pussy Riot“ and a former municipal councilor in Moscow, was sentenced today to six years in prison in Russia for anti-war comments on social networks, Reuters reported, citing a court press release, BTA reports.
27-year-old Stein was found guilty of spreading “fake news about the war” in Ukraine in connection with a March 2022 comment on the "X" social network, in which she accused Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine of "bombing foreign cities and killing people", reported the independent Russian news portal "Mediazona". ;.
Nearly 20,000 Russians have been detained in the country for expressing anti-war views since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, according to the human rights media project “OVD-info“.
Those found guilty of spreading “false information” for the Russian army are threatened with 10 years in prison.
Only a week after the start of the invasion, Stein escaped from house arrest in Moscow with his partner Maria Alyokhina, who is also part of the “Pussy Riot”.
The couple eventually settled in Iceland, which granted them citizenship last May.
There is virtually no chance that Iceland will extradite Steyn to Russia to serve his sentence.
Russian prosecutors had asked for eight and a half years in prison for Stein, who today joked on the X social network that her mother "bet" that they would push for nine years.