It took about a year for authorities to close in on 51-year-old musician and environmentalist Alexander Bakhtin, one of the thousands of Russians arrested for criticizing the Ukraine offensive. Unlike the audiences of high-profile critics, the trials of ordinary Russians usually take place away from public attention.
Bakhtin’s audience was attended by one friend and by his mother. She was summoned to court as a witness in the prosecution against her own son.
Alexander “wouldn’t hurt a fly. He protects animals, he’s an environmentalist,” Lyudmyla Bakhtina said, with tears in her eyes.
Photo: AFP
The 79-year-old barely got to brush the arm of her son as he was led, handcuffed, into the courtroom.
She had seen him twice since his detention for spreading “fake information” about the Russian army — for which he faces up to 10 years in prison.
The accusation is based on three social media posts from March and April last year, in which Alexander Bakhtin talked about civilian deaths and blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the conflict.
Photo: AFP
A year later, he was arrested in his hometown of Mytishchi, in Moscow’s suburbs.
“Everyone in our neighborhood was shocked,” Lyudmyla Bakhtina said.
At the stand, the elderly woman wearing a purple dress and cardigan told the court: “I signed my testimony without reading it.”
Lyudmyla Bakhtina said that the written statement seemed long compared to the interview she had with the investigator.
“Do you think that the Russian army is carrying out a genocide of the Ukrainian population?” the prosecutor asked her.
“I don’t,” she answered.
“What about your son?... And what’s his opinion on the president?” they asked.
“My son is a pacifist, he is against the war. So am I. You can arrest me too,” she said.
The judge then invited Alexander Bakhtin to question his mother.
“When they interrogated you on March 6, did they tell you that you had the right to refuse to testify against me?” Alexander Bakhtin asked in a hoarse voice.
“No,” she said.
The audience was postponed until tomorrow, a standard procedure.
More than 20,000 people have been detained in Russia for protesting the conflict in Ukraine, a tally by independent rights group OVD-Info showed.
Thousands of people have been charged with publishing “fake information” on the offensive, others accused of army “discredit.”
A few hours before Alexander Bakhtin’s audience, in another suburb of Moscow, 75-year-old Anatoly Roshchin also faced trial. Lobnya City Court charged the retired aeronautical engineer with discrediting the army over some online publications.
He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
“Such cases are becoming more and more common,” his lawyer Evgenia Grigorieva said.
At the beginning of the conflict, Roshchin held a lone picket protest in front of the Lobnya city hall.
“My country, you have gone insane,” his sign read.
Most passersby pretended not to see him.
“They were afraid,” he said.
“If Russians weren’t afraid of going to the streets, there wouldn’t be a war. We are responsible for it,” he added.
Feeling “guilty” about Ukraine, Roshchin said he would keep posting on social media despite the ongoing trial.
“An opponent who whispers: ‘Glory to Ukraine’ in his wife’s ear is not really an opponent,” he said.
“I want Ukrainians to know that not all Russians are cowards,” he added.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS