Initially sentenced in December 2023 to a fine of around 6,160 euros, Boris Kagarlitsky, professor at the Moscow High School of Social and Economic Sciences (HSE), saw this sentence replaced by five years in prison, during a appeal trial in a military court in the Moscow region.
He was immediately arrested after the hearing.
The Military Court of Appeal decided “to annul the decision of the court of first instance and sentence Kagarlitsky to a real sentence of 5 years of detention in a penal colony,” the political scientist's lawyer, Sergei, told the press. Yerokhov, quoted by the official TASS agency.
Charged with “public calls for terrorist activities, using the internet”
Boris Kagarlitsky is the author of numerous publications and studies on the left political movement in Russia and around the world.
Indicted for “public calls for terrorist activities, using the internet” and placed in pre-trial detention in July 2023, the 65-year-old political scientist has always rejected all accusations against him.
In December, the Western District Military Court found him “guilty” but sentenced him to a fine.
Already in May 2022, Boris Kagarlitsky was declared a “foreign agent” in Russia, following the Russian assault in Ukraine launched in February of the same year.
Since the start of the offensive by Russian troops in Ukraine and the adoption of laws banning all critical speech, several independent Russian media have been forced to suspend their activities or leave the country and many opponents have gone into exile or been imprisoned.