By Lucy Papachristou
A gaggle of Russian docs has appealed to President Vladimir Putin over the “shameful” jailing of a Moscow paediatrician for feedback she was alleged to have made concerning the struggle in Ukraine.
Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was sentenced to 5-1/2 years in a penal colony final week after the mom of one among her sufferers publicly denounced her.
A dozen medical employees appeared in a video compilation printed on the web site of Echo, a Russian unbiased radio station working in exile, to induce Putin to free her. It was not clear if any had been talking from inside Russia.
Talking in flip, they described the decision as “blatant lawlessness and cruelty” and mentioned it was disproportionate even to the “far-fetched costs” introduced towards Buyanova.
“What hazard to society is an individual who has devoted her life to saving the lives of our youngsters?” one among them mentioned.
“We demand a direct finish to this shameful enterprise and the liberating of Nadezhda Fyodorovna Buyanova,” mentioned one other, utilizing the physician’s full identify.
The Kremlin has declined to touch upon Buyanova’s case or on the rising pattern of Russians informing on fellow residents for his or her views on the struggle and different alleged political statements.
Critics say the follow helps authorities root out suspected “inside enemies”, in an echo of the Soviet period. Russian rights group OVD-Information has recorded 21 such legal prosecutions for the reason that struggle in Ukraine started in February 2022.
The pinnacle of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles severe crimes, launched the case towards Buyanova after the mom of a seven-year-old affected person complained concerning the physician in a video later picked up by a preferred Telegram channel.
The mom, Anastasia Akinshina, mentioned Buyanova had referred to her kid’s father, a Russian soldier killed preventing in Ukraine, as a “respectable goal” of Kyiv’s troops throughout a clinic go to in January.
Buyanova’s attorneys and the docs within the video say there isn’t any arduous proof – equivalent to an audio or video recording – to show she made the assertion.
The prosecution’s case was primarily based virtually solely on Akinshina’s account and a transcript of an interview with the kid carried out by a Federal Safety Service (FSB) officer. The choose rejected the defence’s request to query the boy.
This text was produced by Reuters information company. It has not been edited by International South World.
