A Moscow court has sentenced a popular cookbook author and blogger to nine years in prison after convicting her in absentia of spreading false information about the country’s armed forces.
The trial is part of a massive months-long campaign by the Kremlin to suppress dissent.
The allegations against Veronika Belotserkovskaya, who lives abroad, were linked to her Instagram posts, which authorities said contained “deliberately false information about the use of Russian armed forces to destroy cities and the civilian population of Russia.” ‘Ukraine, including children’. ”
Belotserkovskaya, who, according to her Instagram profile, was born in Odessa, Ukraine, commented on the reports of the verdict with the words: “I am, on the one hand, at a loss, and on the other hand, of course, I am proud.
