Politician Dmitry Gudkov sentenced in absentia to eight years in case of "fakes" about the army

The court sentenced former State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of disseminating “fakes” about the army (clause “d” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), the Moscow prosecutor’s office reports .

The Moscow courts website states that Gudkov's case was heard by the Khoroshevsky District Court. The hearing was completed at today's session, as follows from the case file. The verdict is not indicated in it.

The court also sentenced Gudkov to a four-year ban on administering Internet resources.

The case against Gudkov was opened in October 2023. The reason for it was quotes from a video titled “What did Putin’s war in Ukraine lead to?”, published on the politician’s YouTube channel in April 2022. According to the investigation, in this video, Gudkov disseminated “false information about the mass murder of civilians in Bucha, Irpen, and Borodyanka.”

In February 2024, the Khoroshevsky District Court arrested Gudkov in absentia.

• Gudkov left Russia in June 2021. After the outbreak of full-scale war in 2022, he joined the Anti-War Committee of Russia along with other Russian oppositionists and public figures who are in exile. In February 2023, the Russian Ministry of Justice declared him a "foreign agent".