A Russian court upheld the sentence against a 70-year-old doctor for spreading so-called fake news about the army

The Second Court of Cassation in Moscow rejected the appeal against the verdict and upheld the sentence of 5 years and 6 months in a penal colony for 70-year-old pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova. 

This was reported by SOTAvision. 

The defendant’s defense team demanded that the court’s decision be overturned, as the only direct evidence of guilt was the testimony of Anastasia Akinshina—the former wife of a deceased participant in the war against Ukraine, who filed a complaint against the doctor and repeatedly changed her testimony. Attorney Leonid Solovyov emphasized the violation of the right to defense due to the absence of an audio recording of the consultation in the office, while attorney Oskar Cherdzhiev pointed out the impossibility of verifying the testimony of the complainant’s seven-year-old son, who was questioned only by an FSB major without being summoned to court.

The criminal case against Nadezhda Buyanova was initiated following an incident during the consultation, in which, according to Akinshina, the doctor referred to her deceased husband as a legitimate target and stated that Russia itself was to blame for the war. The doctor herself completely rejected the charges, calling the case fabricated and Akinshina’s statement slander. The verdict against the pediatrician was handed down in November 2024, and in May 2025, the Moscow City Court upheld it during a preliminary review.

Earlier, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced Ukrainian producer Oleksandr Rodnyansky in absentia to 8 years and 6 months in a penal colony for his anti-war publications.

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow also arrested Ukrainian TV presenter Masha Yefrosinina in absentia in a case involving war-related disinformation.