MOSCOW -- Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin has been sentenced to 15 days in jail after being convicted of being disobedient to police, a charge that he and his supporters denied.
Yashin said on Telegram that the Khamovniki district court in Moscow sentenced him on June 28, a day after he was detained while on a walk in a Moscow park with a friend.
"I am an opposition politician, an independent municipal lawmaker, a critic of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and an opponent of the war in Ukraine. This detention of mine is a tool to impose pressure on me," Yashin wrote, adding that he does not exclude that a criminal case may be launched against him after he serves his jail term, which has become a routine practice in the country after Russia launched its ongoing unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Journalist Irina Babloyan, who was with Yashin when he was detained, tweeted on June 28 that the accusation by police that he fought with them was untrue and that Yashin did not resist.
Yashin, 38, is an outspoken Kremlin critic. He was fined four times in recent weeks on charges of discrediting the Russian military over his open opposition to the war in Ukraine.