On June 22, SOTA reported that Igor Baryshnikov had been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for misinformation about the army. The 64-year-old resident of Kaliningrad is in the care of his elderly mother and is suspected of having cancer.
The prosecutor requested Igor Baryshnikov be sentenced to eight years for his 18 Facebook* posts about the events in Bucha and Mariupol, the court handed down a 7.5-year term.
Human rights activists are concerned that both Baryshnikov and his 96-year-old mother will not survive the sentence. She is a World War II home front work veteran but has been denied state assistance for years. Baryshnikov, meanwhile, suffers from a tumor and is moving around with a tube in his stomach. Without medical attention, he could perish.
OVD-info human rights activists have launched a petition demanding the release of Igor Baryshnikov. They also feel that he may not receive the medical care he needs while in prison.
In 2022, Dmitri Kolker, a cancer patient, was arrested in Novosibirsk for treason. According to his son, the reason for his father's arrest was a lecture that Kolker gave to Chinese students at an international conference in 2018. An FSB (Federal Security Service) officer always accompanied him, and Kolker was not allowed to speak English, but Russian only. Kolker was sent to a detention center, where he passed away. He never confessed to the allegations.
