Russian doctor jailed for five years over alleged Ukraine war remarks
Ahead of the verdict, Nadezhda Buyanova was escorted into the courtroom, handcuffed, and locked in a glass and metal cage.
From inside the cage, the 68-year-old pediatrician expressed her disbelief at the situation.
“It’s absurd, just absurd,” she said. “I can’t wrap my head around what’s happening to me. Maybe I’ll understand it later.”
The doctor had been reported to the police by the mother of a 7-year-old boy she had been treating. The mother accused Dr. Buyanova of making disparaging remarks about the boy’s father, a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine, and claiming that Russian servicemen were legitimate targets.
Ms. Buyanova denied making the statements, and there was no audio or video evidence to support the accusations.
However, back in February, she was arrested and charged with spreading false information about the Russian military. After a brief period of house arrest, she was placed in pre-trial detention.
Now, she was in the courtroom, awaiting her sentence.
Before the judge arrived, court officials ordered journalists and camera crews to leave. We were all escorted into the hallway.
Minutes later, the door to the courtroom opened again.
“Five-and-a-half years!” shouted one of Ms. Buyanova’s supporters from the gallery. “She’s been sentenced to a penal colony for five-and-a-half years!”
“The sentence is monstrously harsh,” her lawyer, Oskar Cherdzhiyev, said. “We didn’t expect this, even in light of current events in Russia. Just a few words were enough to imprison someone for such a long time.”
Alina, one of Dr. Buyanova’s supporters in court, added, “It was important for me that Nadezhda saw how many of us came today, so that, if a miracle didn’t happen – and we were all still hoping for one – it would make it a little easier for her.”
“It’s hard to talk about this. We’re all in shock.”
The law against spreading false information about the army is one of several severe measures enacted in Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, aimed at silencing or punishing opposition to the war.
The imprisonment of a Moscow pediatrician is the latest sign that, for Russia, a war abroad is fuelling repression at home.
