Moscow graduate student sentenced to five years in case over comments about the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant

According to the case, Ptushkin was replying to other people’s comments under a post about the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam in June 2023. He wrote: “Russian troops blew up the dam, the explosion is not in Ukraine’s interest” and “The whole world already sees what Russia has been doing for 15 months. There is no point in discrediting what has long since been discredited anyway. The dam’s explosion by Russian troops shows complete despair in the Kremlin. They understand that they will not hold on to Kherson Oblast”.

He left the comments under a pseudonym. As Mediazona reports from the courtroom, Ptushkin admitted guilt, but said he had no motive of political hatred, and that the statements themselves were driven by emotions.

“This is my country, which has its own goals that are objective and just. I want everything to work out as peacefully and calmly as possible. So that the country’s defenders can return to their families”, he said in court.

Criminal proceedings against Ptushkin were opened last year, and in December the court placed him under house arrest. Earlier, he had twice come to the attention of law enforcement because of his participation in anti-war rallies: the first time the court fined him 10,000 rubles, and the second time it imposed 30 days of administrative arrest.

Sources

• Radio Svoboda