Russia detains opposition leader over criticism of war in Ukraine

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A Russian politician and critic Vladimir Putin had been detained for the criticism he had collected in Moscow for a deadly war in Ukraine, a video posted on social media Wednesday showed.

Yevgeny Roizman, former Mayor of Eastern City of Ekaterinburg and supporters of opposition leaders Alexei Navalny – expelled from his house and taken by masked men who wore camouflage.

Roizman was seen in the video telling the audience that he was being investigated for violating laws that prohibit “discredit” the Russian armed forces
The point is that I call war as war. That’s all. Unfortunately, I have no defense,” he said in the second video posted by Russian media outlets Ria.

Putin has refused to mention the deadly campaign in Ukraine War or invasion and vice versa calls it only special military operations.”

Roizman acknowledged the threat of the arrest he faced because of his blunt criticism in the July interview with AFP.

Police has arrested the popular former Yekaterinburg Mayor Evgeny Roizman
on felony charges of “discrediting the Armed Forces.”Roizman was the last prominent opposition figure Russia who wasn’t detained or in exile pic.twitter.com/ouyvLJOsxa

— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) August 24, 2022

A spokesman for Navalny, who has been in Russian prison since January 2021, said, “Putin decided to celebrate six months of war with Ukraine with detention demonstrative from the last opposition politician left in general.”

A few days after the Russian February invasion, Kremlin issued a law that sentenced them who were found to have spread what was considered as a “fake news” about the Russian Armed Forces or War in Ukraine.

Russian news outlets on Wednesday said Roizman could face a sentence of five years in prison.Although the Human Rights Watch in March said that the new laws that criminalized the protesting war and reporting of the independent war could bring a sentence of up to 15 years in prison