On Wednesday, February 1, the Basmanny Court of Moscow sentenced Oleksandr Nevzorov in absentia for his anti-war publications.

The journalist was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony and was banned from administering Internet resources for 4 years.

This was reported by Radio Svoboda with reference to the court decision.

The prosecutor demanded 9 years in prison for the journalist, who since 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, has been constantly criticizing the Kremlin because of its aggression in Ukraine.

The investigation into Nevzorov was launched by Russia's Investigative Committee in March of last year after his publications about the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol and the torture and killing of civilians in Bucha, Kyiv region.

The journalist was found guilty of an article about "fakes" about the Russian army, which was added to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation shortly after the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Back in March, Oleksandr Nevzorov and his wife Lidia left Russia and are now abroad.

In June, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi granted Ukrainian citizenship to Nevzorov and his wife.

In a comment on the Telegram channel "We can explain", Nevzorov said that he is not going to return to Russia either in 8 or 9 years.

"You know that many members of the anti-fascist resistance in Hitler's Germany did not find the strength after the war to return to Germany, which seemed to them to be completely defiled. And I have the same feeling about Russia. For me, this is not a tragedy, I have already settled in here [abroad] , learned to live and earn," he said.

In addition, he expressed doubt that in 8-9 years Russia will still exist. 

He also skeptically assessed the possibility of his further residence in Ukraine, where, according to him, he is not perceived as his own. 

"I am a creature without a nationality, a country. I have a Ukrainian passport and I am very proud of it. But in Ukraine they still do not accept me as their own, they value me as an ally, as a friend, as a knight who fights for Ukraine, but until the end they don't accept me," the journalist emphasized.

It will be recalled that President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, during a conversation with journalists on June 6, commented on the granting of Ukrainian citizenship to Russian publicist and blogger Oleksandr Nevzorov.

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