Detention of Russian dissident Yashin extended by 6 months

Russian opposition activist and municipal deputy of the Krasnoselsky district Ilya Yashin gestures standing in a cage in a courtroom prior to a hearing in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022. A trial against Yashin, one of the few prominent opposition figures who haven't left Russia, has begun on Wednesday. He has been charged under a new law making it a crime to spread false information about the military and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

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MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Wednesday extended by six months the pretrial detention of Ilya Yashin, one of the few prominent opposition figures to have remained in the country amid an intensifying crackdown on dissent.

He was arrested in June in a Moscow park and later was charged with spreading false information about the Russian military — a new criminal offense for which he faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The law against discrediting the military was enacted after Russia sent troops in Ukraine in February.

The charges against Yashin reportedly relate to a YouTube livestream video in which he talked about Ukrainians being killed in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. He rejects the charges as politically motivated.

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