Russian court sentences former Pussy Riot lawyer to 11 years in prison in absentia

MADRID (EUROPA PRESS) – A district court in the Russian capital, Moscow, sentenced Mark Feigin, a lawyer for the punk group Pussy Riot, known for its activism against President Vladimir Putin, to eleven years in prison in absentia. Feigin was included in the list of foreign agents in May 2022.

The Moscow Basmani court found Feigin guilty of spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces and fined him 4.5 million rubles (just under 47,000 euros), according to a statement published by the press service of the Moscow courts via its Telegram account.

Feigin is to serve his sentence in a “general regime correctional colony” and has also been deprived of the right to “carry out activities related to the administration of websites and Internet resources” for a period of four years. The verdict was handed down in the absence of the accused, who is out of the country.

According to the Russian Prosecutor’s Office, Feigin gave an interview to an Israeli television channel in April 2022, during which he used the opportunity to spread deliberately false information about the involvement of the Russian Armed Forces in the deaths of dozens of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, outside kyiv.