A notable video shows ordinary Russian citizens performing an extraordinary act of defiance against Vladimir. to make Putininto war Ukraine†
The footage, filmed in a Moscow courtroom, shows citizens applauding an opposition councilor and lawyer as he faces a draconian seven-year prison sentence for daring to oppose the military conflict.
Alexei Gorinov, 60, today received the first long-term prison sentence for spreading “deliberately false information” about the Russian military.
Moscow city deputy Alexei Gorinov is accused of spreading ‘knowingly false information’ about Russian army fighting in Ukraine
He and another councilor were on trial for demanding an end to the war in March.
Today, he warned in court against a return to the days of Stalin, while redoubled his appeal to end Putin’s war.
‘I believe that all the efforts of’ [Russian] civil society should only be focused on stopping the war and withdrawing Russian troops from Ukraine’s territory,” he had said in March in remarks that took him to court.
He protested vocally about children who died in the war.
He has been in jail ever since, but reiterated his objections to the war when he was in the dock of the Meshchansky District Court in Moscow.
Still, people’s reaction to the crowded public seats in the court – who support Gorinov – is one of the most striking displays of dissent by Russians during the war.
They are watched by armed OMON troops who are unable to stop the protest.
While he was sentenced in his glass cage, he held up a sign that read “Do you still need this war?”
Human rights groups fear he will be the first of many Russians to be imprisoned simply because they have expressed objections to a war that has killed tens of thousands of people on both sides.
They are accused of spreading ‘false information’ about the war.
In his closing statement, the alderman said, “War, whatever synonym you call it, is the last, dirtiest, vilest thing, unworthy of a man’s title.”
He said: ‘I thought that in the 20th century Russia had exhausted its limits on wars.
The guard tries to block the message while Gorinov holds up an anti-war sign from a glass cage in a Moscow courtroom. Members of the public then stand and applaud as Gorinov is sentenced to seven years in prison
‘Our present, however, is Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel.
‘Do these names mean anything to you?
“You, the prosecutors, take an interest and don’t say later that you didn’t know.”
He told the court: ‘I am convinced of this: war is the quickest means of dehumanization, when the lines between good and evil are blurred.
“War is always violence and blood, torn bodies and severed limbs.
‘It’s always death. I don’t accept it and reject it.’
Gorinov stands and gestures defiantly from a glass cage as he condemns the war in Ukraine in his closing statement. He said he hopes to become the Russian ambassador to Ukraine someday in the future
In his courtroom speech, he mocked Putin by stating: “For five months, Russia has been waging hostilities on the territory of a neighboring state, misleadingly calling it a ‘special military operation’.
“We have been promised victory and glory.
‘Then why do so many of my fellow citizens feel shame and guilt? Why did many people leave Russia and keep leaving? And why did our country suddenly have so many enemies?’
He said he had a constitutional right to express his opinion, which was quashed by the jail sentence.
“During the years of Stalinist terror, my grandfather was accused of calling for the overthrow of the Soviet system, in the creation and strengthening of which he participated in the most direct way,” he said.
Gorinov said that “many of my fellow citizens feel ashamed and guilty” about the conflict in Ukraine. This sentiment is clearly shared as rebellious Russians stand up and applaud him as he is sentenced
He lived to be rehabilitated half a century later.
“I hope my recovery will take much less time,” he said.
“But for now I’m sitting here in court.
“My criminal case is one of the first to be heard, but in Russia hundreds of such cases have been brought against my fellow citizens who think and speak about what is happening.”
The Russian authorities were “destroying families and breaking the lives of young people.”
And when I speak here, I speak on behalf of all those who have not yet been brought to justice.
He had manned the barricades when the USSR fell, in support of democracy.
“If they had said then that in 30 years I would be tried by a criminal court for my words, for my opinion, I would not have believed it,” he said.
People’s reaction to the crowded public seats in the court – who support Gorinov – is one of the most striking displays of dissent by the Russian people during the war
“In the meantime, I wish caution to our government,” he said.
“I wish the judges wisdom.
“I wish steadfastness to all who are subject to a new wave of repression, as well as to the entire Ukrainian people.
“For myself, one day I would like to become a future Russian ambassador to Ukraine.”
A supporter Dmitry Fyodorov, 50, a programmer, said the charges against Gorinov were “illegitimate.”
He was a ‘nice man and a good lawyer’.
The other accused Elena Kotenochkina was tried in absentia after she left Russia.