The head of the Kamchatka branch of the liberal Yabloko party has been sentenced to two years in a penal colony for repeatedly “discrediting” the Russian military, independent Russian media outlet Govorit NeMoskva reported on Tuesday.
In its sentencing, the court in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia’s Far East also banned Vladimir Yefimov, who also works as a journalist, from publishing articles, and running websites or media channels for four years.
Yefimov, who during the 1990s worked for the first private TV channel in Kamchatka, currently works as the head of the local branch for the liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political party in Russia to have openly condemned the war in Ukraine.
Yefimov was first charged with “discrediting” the Russian army in March 2023 for Facebook posts he wrote during the first few months of the war in Ukraine that denounced the Russian invasion. While he was initially fined 200,000 rubles (€1,950) for the post, that was subsequently reduced to six months of restricted freedom.
In May 2024, a second criminal case against Yefimov was opened and he was held in a pretrial detention centre for two months before being placed under house arrest.
Another criminal case against Yefimov is currently pending in which he has also been accused of “discrediting” the Russian military as well as “displaying Nazi symbols” after he compared pro-war Russian singer Shaman to a Hitler Youth character from the movie Cabaret, according to independent Russian news outlet Mediazona.
