Prosecutors Seek Six Years For Siberian Journalist Over Article On Ukraine War

Russian prosecutors asked a court in the Siberian city of Abakan on August 22 to sentence the award-winning editor in chief of the Novy fokus (New Focus) online newspaper, Mikhail Afanasyev, to six years in prison on a charge of discrediting Russia's armed forces. Afanasyev was arrested in April last year after his newspaper reported on the refusal of local riot police officers to participate in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Afanasyev was the first foreign recipient of the Swedish Publicists' Association Freedom of Speech prize and was twice awarded with the Andrei Sakharov "For Journalism As a Deed" prize. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities, click here.