Soviet-era dissident given 16 years in prison for social media post

A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced the 67-year-old Soviet-era dissident Alexander Skobov to 16 years in prison and fined him 300,000 rubles (€3,300) for a social media post he wrote, independent news outlet RusNews reported on Friday.

Skobov was arrested in April for a Telegram post he wrote arguing that Vladimir Putin could “not be overthrown with ‘wallets’” and calling for him to be hit with missiles instead, adding a list of targets, including the Crimean Bridge, the Black Sea Fleet, airfields in the rear and Moscow.

He was found guilty on charges of “justifying terrorism” and “involvement with a terrorist community”, though he was given a slightly more lenient sentence than the 18 year one requested by the Prosecutor’s Office.

Skobov is a well known Soviet-era dissident who was twice confined to a psychiatric hospital for his pro-democracy activism under communism, a common fate for political dissidents at the time.

Already an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and his full-scale invasion of Ukraine when he was arrested in April, Skobov refused to leave Russia when he had the chance, despite repeated pleas to do so from his family.

Since spending the past year in pretrial detention, Skobov’s health in general, and his eyesight in particular, have deteriorated significantly, and his family and supporters have always warned that handing him a long custodial term would be an effective death sentence.

In his closing statement to court, which was published in full on a Telegram channel run by his supporters, Skobov accused Putin’s “ruling clique” of unleashing a war of aggression on Ukraine. He then addressed the judge, the prosecutors, and the bailiffs, whom he called “servants of Putin’s regime”, asking them if they repented for their complicity in Putin’s crimes.

“Death to the Russian fascist invaders! Death to Putin, the new Hitler, a murderer and a scoundrel! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” Skobov proclaimed in court.

Skobov’s wife, Olga Shcheglova, thanked reporters after the hearing for making her husband’s words public, telling independent outlet RusNews that he had chosen to speak out despite knowing that it would only lengthen his sentence.

“We are grateful. That’s all I can say now, just minutes after the tough sentence that condemns him to a long, painful and ugly death in prison,” Shcheglova said.