RUSSIAN prosecutors today recommended a fine for prominent Kremlin critic Yevgeny Roizman, on trial in the central city of Yekaterinburg for comments about the Ukraine conflict.  

The prosecutor urged the judge to “find Yevgeny Roizman guilty and impose a fine of ₽260,000 (RM15,600)” over charges of discrediting the Russian military, according to Russian news agencies.  

The 60-year-old former mayor had pleaded not guilty at the trial that began in early April and which could have seen him jailed for up to five years.  

Roizman was accused of discrediting the army in a video he posted on YouTube in July 2022 in which he criticised Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.  

Since the start of the Ukraine conflict last year, the Kremlin has increased its efforts to silence dissent over the fighting and of President Vladimir Putin’s leadership.  

Roizman is among a dwindling number of prominent opposition figures who are not in jail or exile. Several have been jailed for criticising the Ukraine conflict.  

The prosecutor justified the lenient sentence recommendation by the “low gravity” of the offence and “mitigating circumstances” including the fact that Roizman has young children and is involved in charitable activities.  

In 2013, Roizman, 60, became Russia’s highest-profile opposition mayor, a position he held in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg for five years.  

He is a popular figure in the city and also a friend of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. – AFP, May 18, 2023.