Russia writer sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison News
A.Savin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Russia writer sentenced in absentia to 14 years in prison

Moscow’s Military Court sentenced a Russian writer to 14 years of imprisonment in absentia on Monday for failing to follow “foreign agent” regulations, facilitating terroristic activity, and justifying terrorism.

Writer Boris Akunin, whose real name is Grigori Chkhartishvili, was also fined 400,000 rubles (approximately $5,000), prohibited from managing webpages for four years following the end of his sentence, and added to the register of terrorists and extremists.

Akunin shared news of the sentencing on his Telegram, sarcastically wishing his readers farewell, stating that his next post will be in 2043. A day later, he made a return post stating that he changed his mind.

Evidence against Akunin showed that he posted at least 33 Telegram posts without informing his readers that he is a “foreign agent.” The charge of justifying terrorism was supported with a post that read:

I support revolution because there is no other way to get rid of the dictatorship. There are no elections and there will not be; the regime kills or rots opposition in jails. Yes, revolution is an explosion. But sometimes in history there are blockages that cannot be cleared without an explosion.

The charge of facilitating terroristic activity was supported by a conversation that Akunin held with pranksters who introduced themselves as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Oleksandr Tkachenko. In the conversation, Akunin expressed sorrow concerning the attack on the Crimean Bridge, but agreed that there was possibly no other way. In the same conversation, Akunin urged the leaders to more actively agitate Russian soldiers so they would surrender.

Politically motivated sentencing in absentia is a regular practice in Russia. In June, the same court sentenced Leonid Volkov to 18 years in absentia.

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