On 29 September 2023, a court in Krasnodar, southern Russia, sentenced blogger Alexander Nozdrinov to 8.5 years of prison on charges of allegedly disseminating “fake news” related to the war in Ukraine. Nozdrinov was also banned from working in media outlets for a period of four years.
According to Russian independent media, the blogger locally known as Sanya Novokubansk was additionally accused by authorities of disseminating what they said was “fake news” on Ukraine out of “material interest” and on “motives of hatred”. The basis for the accusation was a Telegram post in which Nozdrinov allegedly published a photo of an apartment building in Kyiv hit by a Russian missile, which Russian authorities claimed was Ukrainian.
In a statement, the Russian human rights group Memorial earlier said that it had recognized Nozdrinov as a political prisoner. The group referred to testimonies by local activists who claimed that the sentence was handed to the blogger as a form of reprisal for his activity uncovering abuses by officials of local security forces.