A Moscow court on September 5 sentenced blogger Aleksandr Shpak, who now lives abroad, to eight years in prison on charges of distributing false information about the Russian military. The sentence in absentia stems from a video about the destruction by Russian forces of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine in June 2023 that Shpak posted on Instagram. Shpak condemned the dam's destruction in the video, calling the Russian troops "rashists" -- a derogatory word used by Russia's critics to compare Russian troops to fascists. The video was later removed from Instagram. Shpak currently resides in the United States. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.
