Russian Court Sentences Pussy Riot Member Liudmila Stein to Six Years in Prison in Absentia for Spreading False Information

A Russian court has sentenced Pussy Riot member Liudmila (Lucy) Stein to six years in prison in absentia for spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces. The Prosecutor’s Office had requested an eight-year sentence and a four-year internet ban.

Stein, who is abroad and on Russia’s wanted list, was accused of sharing false information about the Armed Forces on Twitter. She had previously been sentenced to one year of restriction of freedom for violating sanitary regulations during a demonstration in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. After the war started, Stein cut off her electronic ankle bracelet and left Russia.

In recent months, at least 19,855 people have been detained in Russia for expressing anti-war views since President Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Pussy Riot gained notoriety for a protest in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 2012. Stein fled Moscow with her girlfriend and fellow Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, eventually settling in Iceland where she was granted citizenship.

Prosecutors had requested an eight-and-a-half-year sentence for Stein, but she was ultimately given six years in prison. Stein’s mother had joked that they would ask for a nine-year sentence.