Russia: Six-year prison sentence requested for pediatrician accused of criticizing the army

Six years in prison: the Russian prosecutor's office on Friday demanded this sentence against a Moscow pediatrician accused by the mother of one of her patients of having criticized the Russian offensive in Ukraine, in the midst of a crackdown on all opposition in Russia.

The prosecutor asked judge Olga Fedina to “find (Nadejda) Bouyanova guilty and sentence her to six years of deprivation of liberty in a penal colony”. The verdict will be delivered on Tuesday.

“I do not admit my guilt, I am innocent,” said the 68-year-old doctor, in tears before the start of the hearing, after the handcuffs were removed from her.

“None of this is true,” she said from her glass box in court, supported by a dozen people in the room, AFP noted.

This case illustrates the ruthless repression targeting critical voices, real or supposed, of the large-scale assault by the Russian army against Ukraine ordered in February 2022 by President Vladimir Putin.

Arrests for espionage, treason, sabotage, extremism or for simple criticism of the army are multiplying, with very heavy prison sentences for the accused, often victims of denunciations.

For Nadezhda Bouyanova, the ordeal began on January 31 when the partner of a soldier reported missing at the front, Anastassia Akinchina, 34, denounced her.

Pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova, accused of criticizing Russia's offensive in Ukraine, appears before a Moscow court on November 8, 2024 © AFP – TATYANA MAKEYEVA

The mother of a seven-year-old boy treated by Ms. Buyanova, accused the pediatrician of telling her in a private conversation that her husband who disappeared in Ukraine “was a legitimate target” for the Ukrainian armed forces and that “Russia was an aggressor country and was attacking Ukrainian civilians.”

A version refuted by Nadezhda Buyanova who described Anastassia Akinchina as “a person with an unstable character”, who left a consultation to treat her child's stye “nervous and unhappy”.

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In this word against word, “lying should not be encouraged”, argued Nadezhda Buyanova's lawyer, Leonid Soloviev, who demanded his client's acquittal.

– “What hatred could I feel?” –

Following these accusations, Nadezhda Buyanova was immediately dismissed. “I only had ten minutes to gather my things after four years of service” in this hospital, she recounted.

But the nightmare was far from over: she was then charged in February, and detained in April, for “spreading false information” about the Russian army, allegedly motivated by “ethnic hatred”.

Pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova, in tears, accused of criticizing the Russian offensive in Ukraine, appears before the Moscow court, November 8, 2024 © AFP – TATYANA MAKEYEVA

Nadezhda Buyanova has lived in Russia for thirty years but was born in Lviv, a city in western Ukraine, considered by many Russians to be particularly hostile to them.

“Everything is explained. That's why she hates Russia and Russian fighters. She's from Lviv!” Anastassia Akinchina cried out during a hearing at the end of May.

“It's painful to read what is written in the indictment. What hatred could I feel? I am linked to three Slavic peoples: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,” the pediatrician defended herself again on Friday, before bursting into tears.”

She must also face the testimony of her former 7-year-old patient, who, according to the defense, was not present during the discussion between the two women.

“The doctor told mom that dad was a legitimate target of Ukraine, that Russia is an aggressor country and that Russia was killing civilians in Ukraine,” the child said, in her deposition read during a hearing in June and quoted by the Russian media outlet Mediazona, which covers the repressions.

“These are adult sentences, so frightening… I doubt that these are her words,” Nadezhda Buyanova replied on Friday.

The pediatrician's colleagues launched an online petition of support that has so far gathered more than 6,000 signatures. Her dismissal was overturned in July by a Moscow court without this having any consequences on the criminal proceedings.

“I am not a politician. I am a doctor,” Nadezhda Buyanova said on Friday, asking the court to take into consideration her state of health and her impeccable professional past.

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