Russian Poet Gets 7 Years Jail for Poems Against War in Ukraine

A Russian poet Artyom Kamardin was punished with a 7-year prison sentence Thursday for reciting verses against Russia’s war in Ukraine. Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court convicted the poet on charges of undermining national security and inciting hatred.

Artyom was alleged to have read his anti-war poems during a street performance in downtown Moscow in September 2022.

Yegor Shtovba, who recited Kamardin’s poems, was sentenced to 5 1/2 years on the same charges.

Russian media quoted Kamardin’s friends and his lawyer as saying that police beat and raped him during the arrest.

Between late February 2022 and earlier this month, 19,847 people have been detained in Russia for voicing their protest against the war. According to the OVD-Info rights group, 794 people have been implicated in criminal cases over their anti-war stance.