(22 Apr 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++PLEASE NOTE: AP IS OPERATING IN RUSSIA ACCORDING TO NEW RUSSIAN RESTRICTIONS ON ALL REPORTING RELATED TO THE ONGOING MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Moscow - 22 April 2022
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Vadim Prokhorov, lawyer of Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr, exiting court
2. Close of court entrance plaque inscription reading (Russian): "Basmanny District court of the City of Moscow."
2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vadim Prokhorov, lawyer for Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr:
"The cosmic speed at which events are moving, (the speed at which authorities) try to place Vladimir Kara-Murza in detention, and then, in the future, will try to impose punishment - that means Russian authorities are afraid of the truth. They are afraid that he told the truth about the war, which Russian authorities require to be called 'the special operation'."
3. Mid of journalists listening to lawyer and filming with smartphones
4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vadim Prokhorov, lawyer for Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr:
"Only this accusation was made. He wasn't accused of anything else, of anything criminal or illegal."
5. Wide of Prokhorov leaving court
6. Wide of court exterior
STORYLINE:
Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against a prominent opposition activist and remanded him in pre-trial detention on Friday for allegedly spreading "false information" about the country's armed forces.
A court in Moscow ordered Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. held in detention until June 12.
His lawyer told reporters that the false information case against his client cited a March 15 speech he made to the Arizona House of Representatives, in which he denounced the military operation in Ukraine, as the basis for the latest charges.
The activist rejects the accusations.
Russian media reported that similar charges were being drawn up against outspoken tech executive Ilya Krasilshchik, the former publisher of Russia's top independent news site, Meduza.
The moves against the two Kremlin critics are part of a widening crackdown against individuals speaking out against Russia's actions in Ukraine.
Russia adopted a law criminalising spreading false information about its military shortly after the start of the operation in Ukraine in late February.
The offence is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Human rights advocates so far have counted 32 cases targeting critics of the operation.
Kara-Murza is a journalist and a former associate of late Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015, and oligarch-turned-dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was jailed for years in Russia.
Kara-Murza himself was hospitalised with poisoning symptoms twice, in 2015 and 2017.
In a separate move Friday, the Russian justice ministry added Kara-Murza and several other prominent Kremlin critics to the registry of "foreign agents".
The designation implies additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations that can discredit those on the list.
The new additions to the registry included Leonid Volkov, top ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and Alexei Venediktov, former editor-in-chief of Russia's oldest critical radio station, Ekho Moskvy, which was taken off the airwaves shortly after the Russian military operation began.
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