Anna Alexandrova jailed over neighbour claim of spreading fake news

A St Petersburg-based hairdresser, Anna Alexandrova, has been sentenced to five years and two months in prison after being accused of disseminating false information about the Russian military. The 47-year-old mother of two denied all allegations, maintaining that the case was rooted in a personal dispute with her neighbour over land.

According to Alexandrova, the prosecution was triggered by a feud with her neighbour, who reported her after Alexandrova allegedly sent her daughter images from the war in Ukraine. The neighbour admitted to informing authorities, which led to Alexandrova being charged with posting eight anti-war messages on social media platforms under anonymous accounts.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has enacted strict laws criminalizing the discrediting of its armed forces. The legislation has been broadly used to stifle dissent, with numerous critics, activists, and independent journalists imprisoned.

Alexandrova was arrested in November 2023. Her lawyer, Anastasia Pilipenko, explained that the case originally began as a typical domestic land dispute but escalated once the “fake news” charge was added.

Once allies in local efforts to halt deforestation by developers in the village of Korpikyulya, Alexandrova and her neighbour’s relationship soured, resulting in a bitter legal confrontation. The court ultimately sentenced Alexandrova to a penal colony and banned her from sharing online content for the next three years.

On the same day, four journalists in Moscow — Antonina Favorskaya, Konstantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin, and Artyom Kriger — were sentenced to five and a half years for allegedly collaborating with an “extremist organisation.” All four maintained they were simply performing their duties as journalists, producing content later used by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption group. Favorskaya had notably captured the final video of Navalny before his controversial death in prison.

Meanwhile, a constitutional complaint has been filed by lawyers representing Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow councillor who was the first person fully sentenced under the 2022 law. Gorinov was initially jailed for seven years after criticising the invasion of Ukraine at a council meeting. His sentence was later extended by three more years following additional charges.

Lawyers Katerina Tertukhina and Olga Podoplelova contend the law is misused to suppress opposition and punish the dissemination of truthful yet conflicting information, masquerading as a measure to uphold public order.