Prosecutors asked a Moscow court on December 27 to convict poets Artyom Kamardin and Yegor Shtovba on charges of "inciting hatred and calling for anti-state activities" and sentence them to seven and six years, respectively, for publicly reciting verses condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Earlier in May, another poet, Nikolai Daineko, who agreed to cooperate with investigators, was handed a four-year prison term on the same charges. The trio was arrested in September 2022 after they presented their anti-war poems in public. Kamardin's girlfriend has accused the police of subjecting the poet to sexual violence during his arrest. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian Service, click here.
