A court in Moscow has sentenced Oleg Kashintsev, a former police major, to 8 years in prison in absentia for “spreading fakes about the Russian army”, as per Setevye Svobody and attorney Ilnur Sharapov.
The court fully satisfied the prosecutor’s requests. Kashintsev has also been banned from running social media and taking law enforcement positions for four years. He was also stripped of his major of police rank.
Setevye Svobody notes that this was Russia’s first verdict in absentia for “fakes about the army”. Kashintsev was accused of spreading false information because of several posts he published on Instagram and Telegram last spring.
The state prosecution considered the allegations that Russia was waging a war with Ukraine, the allegations of Russia’s intention to seize the territories of Ukraine, the allegations of military personnel killing civilians, torture, rape and looting, as false facts.
Kashintsev lives outside Russia. He was put on the wanted list last July. Interpol declared that his persecution was politically motivated and refused to cooperate with Russian authorities on the matter.
Kashintsev has been working as a police officer in Rybinsk for 18 years and quit his job in 2019 during mass protests in Moscow.
