Russia’s Supreme Court has rejected a cassation appeal and upheld a 16-year prison sentence against Alexander Skobow, a 68-year-old dissident convicted of “justifying terrorism” and participating in the activities of an organization designated as terrorist by Russian authorities, the Telegram news channel SotaVision reported.
Skobow appeared at the hearing by video link. He said he had agreed to support the cassation appeal only in order to address the court and call on European countries to enter the war and defeat the Russian Federation.
He described the Russian Federation as his “armed adversary” and wished death upon “Russian-fascist occupiers” as well as Vladimir Putin, whom he called “a new Hitler.”
The criminal prosecution of Alexander Skobow stemmed from his participation in the Free Russia Forum and from a post he wrote about the explosion on the Crimean Bridge. Skobow is a dissident and former Soviet political prisoner. He was first arrested in 1978 and committed to a psychiatric institution by court order for distributing anti-Soviet leaflets, and was released in 1981. In 1985, he was again sent to a psychiatric institution for painting anti-Soviet slogans on building walls. Skobow was a defendant in the last anti-Soviet agitation case, which was closed in 1989 when the relevant article was removed from the criminal code. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he spoke out against the war in Chechnya and organized opposition rallies in St. Petersburg. In 2022, he opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for support of the Ukrainian armed forces.
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