U.S. journalist and author Masha Gessen was convicted in absentia Monday by a Moscow court on charges of spreading false information about the military and was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Russian police put Gessen on a wanted list in December, and Russian media reported the case was based on statements they made about atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha in an interview with a popular Russian online blogger.
The Moscow-born Gessen, a staff writer for The New Yorker and a columnist for The New York Times who lives in the U.S., is a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an award-winning writer.
In the interview, which has been viewed more than 6.5 million times on YouTube since September 2022, Gessen and blogger Yury Dud discussed atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha earlier that year.
Ukrainian troops who retook Bucha from retreating Russian forces found at least 400 bodies of men, women and children on the streets, in homes, and in mass graves, with some showing signs of torture. Russian officials have vehemently denied their forces were responsible and have prosecuted a number of Russian public figures for speaking out about Bucha.
The prosecutions were carried out under a Russian law adopted days after the invasion of Ukraine began that effectively criminalized any public expression about the war deviating from the Kremlin narrative. Russia maintains that its troops in Ukraine only strike military targets, not civilians.
Gessen, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, lived in Russia until 2013, when the country passed legislation against the LGBTQ community.
Gessen is unlikely to face imprisonment in Russia on the conviction unless they travel to a country with an extradition treaty with Moscow.
Since the war began in February 2022, Russia has cracked down harshly on dissent and also has targeted Americans.
There have been 1,053 criminal cases in Russia against anti-war protesters, according to the OVD-Info rights group, which tracks political arrests and provides legal aid.
Also on Monday, Russian citizen Richard Rose was found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian military in Bucha, OVD-Info said. Rose also was sentenced to eight years in prison.
According to OVD-Info, he said on a video that “the massacre in Bucha will never be forgotten. … Russian fascists will never be forgiven for this.”
In his final speech before the court, Rose said he considers himself to be a political prisoner and said he would not change his views, the monitoring group said.
