Jailed Russian politician challenges ‘false information on military’ law

A Moscow politician jailed for criticising Russia’s war in Ukraine has launched a constitutional challenge to the country’s controversial law on spreading false information about the military, BBC News Russian reported on Monday.

Alexey Gorinov, sentenced to seven years in prison under the law in 2022, has appealed to Russia’s Constitutional Court to overturn it, arguing that it violates free speech and silences legitimate criticism of the government.

In his submission, Gorinov said the law allowed the state to monopolise information and punish statements that deviate from the official narrative — a practice he said contradicted democratic principles and the Russian Constitution’s ban on state-imposed ideology, according to independent news outlet RusNews.

The law, adopted in 2022, has become a central tool in the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent. Russian human rights organisations and individuals convicted under the law — including Ilya Yashin, freed in a prisoner exchange in 2024 — attempted to challenge the law in the Constitutional Court in 2023, though their case was unsuccessful.

Gorinov was arrested after criticising a children’s drawing competition as inappropriate during wartime, and calling for a minute’s silence for victims of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at a council meeting in March 2022. He became the first person to be sentenced to a custodial sentence under the new law.

Following secret recordings made by an informant during a conversation while being treated in a prison hospital, Gorinov faced a second trial for justifying terrorism, receiving an additional three-year sentence. Gorinov, who has remained outspoken about the war despite the consequences, is also on Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists”.