Russian doctor who criticised war in Ukraine sentenced to five years in prison

A doctor has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian military, after the mother of one of her patients reported her to authorities.

Dr Nadezhda Buyanova was first arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina alleged that Buyanova told her and her son that his father — a Russian soldier who Akinshina says was killed in Ukraine — was a legitimate target for Kyiv's troops.

During their pediatric session, Akinshina said that Buyanova also blamed Moscow for the war in Ukraine.

A video of Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicised, and the head of Russia's Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, personally demanded a criminal case be brought against the doctor.

Buyanova denied the accusation and maintained that she had never made the comments Akinshina accused her of.

Her defence argued that there was not enough evidence the conversation took place, as the prosecutors did not have any recordings of what was said. They argued Akinshina fabricated the story due to her animosity for Ukraine, according to reports of hearings of the trial published on news site Mediazona.

In a tearful closing statement that week, Buyanova urged the court to acquit her — calling the accusations "painful".

“A doctor, especially a pediatrician, is not capable of wishing harm to a child, his mother, or traumatising the child’s psyche. Only a monster is capable of this -- and of the words that I allegedly said to them,” Mediazona quoted her as saying.

In Russia, Buyanova's case has drawn national attention, with more than 6,500 people signing an online petition demanding her freedom.

Her supporters, who have regularly attended court hearings, shouted out "disgrace" as the judge read out the verdict.

Buyanova's lawyer, Oscar Cherdzhyev, told reporters that they did not expect the prison sentence to be so long and called the verdict “unexpectedly harsh” and “monstrously cruel”.

In 2022, Russia adopted a series of laws that prohibited public expression about the narrative of its invasion of Ukraine that deviated from the official line.

“Spreading false information” about the army has been a criminal offence since March.

OVD-info, one of Russia’s leading rights groups that tracks political arrests, says over 1,000 people have been implicated in criminal cases on charges related to speaking or acting out against the war.

Last year, in a high-profile case, Russian artist Sasha Skochilenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for swapping supermarket price tags with anti-war slogans in St Petersburg.