Four editors of the Russian student magazine Doxa have been sentenced to two years of hard labour, a Moscow court ruled on Tuesday. This is reported by the Russian news agency Interfax. They face the penalty for encouraging minors to participate in anti-Kremlin protests. A video published on Doxa in January last year urged students to make their voices heard for the release of opposition politician Alexei Navalny.
The sentence demanded against the foursome Armen Aramyan, Vladimir Metyolkin, Natalia Tyshkevich and Alla Gutnikova, who maintain their innocence, was the same as the court imposed on Tuesday. In addition to two years of “corrective labor,” which they do not have to perform in prison, the four editors are also banned from operating a website for three years.
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The independent student newspaper Doxa (Greek for opinion) was founded in 2017 and covers student life, higher education, politics and science. The medium is seen as a mouthpiece for critical students in Russia. After publishing the video, the police searched Doxa’s office and the four editors were lifted from their beds. The video was removed from the magazine’s website by order of the state regulator.
The now convicted editors have been under house arrest for almost a year and have announced that they will appeal the verdict.