Russian authorities have opened a “criminal investigation” against Ilya Yachine, one of the last opposition figures not to be in exile or sentenced to a long prison term, his lawyer announced on Tuesday. The Russian Investigative Committee, in charge of the main investigations, opened this procedure against the opponent for “spreading false information” about the Russian army, declared on Facebook his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, indicating that he had “received a call from the inspector “.
Ilia Iachine, 39, was sentenced on June 28 to 15 days in detention for “disobedience to the police”, a charge he considered trumped up, and was therefore still in prison on Tuesday. Later Tuesday, his lawyer said, quoted by Russian agencies, that “the motive for the criminal investigation is that on April 7, Yashin spoke live on his YouTube channel about the killing of civilians in Bucha”, Ukraine.