Ilya Yashin had always known that his time as a free man was rapidly running out. The Russian opposition politician was determined to use whatever weeks or months were left to tell his fellow citizens the truth about the war in Ukraine. But the truth is a dangerous thing in President Putin’s Russia.
In early March, eight days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Putin approved a new law that made it a crime to promote “fake” news about the actions of the Russian army. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in a prison camp. Scores of people have been charged under the law in the six months since it was adopted.
