The prominent liberal politician Ilya Yashin has been arrested in the Russian capital Moscow. The Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday afternoon, citing a Moscow court, that he had to be imprisoned for 15 days for disobedience to police officers.
Lawyer Mikhail Biryukov classifies the actions of the judiciary as politically motivated. “At the moment, almost every day in Moscow, activists and deputies who want to either vote in local elections or support their candidates are being arrested. I attend trials and arrests almost every day. I think his arrest has to do with the authorities’ fear that he might interfere and support the local election campaign, because his word carries a lot of weight with voters in Moscow.”
Yashin said the arrest was a way to put pressure on him. “I am an opposition politician, an independent MP, a critic of President Putin and an opponent of the war in Ukraine,” the 38-year-old wrote on the Telegram news service.
On the night of Tuesday, the civil rights portal Owd-Info first announced that Yashin had been taken to a police station. Accordingly, his lawyer initially had no access to the deputy of a Moscow district parliament.
According to media reports, Yashin was already being investigated in the spring for allegedly disparaging the Russian army. In the course of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, a heavily criticized law came into force a few months ago, which provides for high penalties for alleged false reports about Russia’s armed forces.
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