By Lucy Papachristou
LONDON (Reuters) – A group of Russian doctors has appealed to President Vladimir Putin over the “shameful” jailing of a Moscow paediatrician for comments she was alleged to have made about the war in Ukraine.
Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was sentenced to 5-1/2 years in a penal colony last week after the mother of one of her patients publicly denounced her.
A dozen medical staff appeared in a video compilation published on the website of Echo, a Russian independent radio station operating in exile, to urge Putin to free her. It was not clear if any were speaking from inside Russia.
Speaking in turn, they described the verdict as “blatant lawlessness and cruelty” and said it was disproportionate even to the “far-fetched charges” brought against Buyanova.
“What danger to society is a person who has dedicated her life to saving the lives of our children?” one of them said.
“We demand an immediate end to this shameful business and the freeing of Nadezhda Fyodorovna Buyanova,” said another, using the doctor’s full name.
The Kremlin has declined to comment on Buyanova’s case or on the rising trend of Russians informing on fellow citizens for their views on the war and other alleged political statements.
Critics say the practice helps authorities root out suspected “internal enemies”, in an echo of the Soviet era. Russian rights group OVD-Info has recorded 21 such criminal prosecutions since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.
The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, launched the case against Buyanova after the mother of a seven-year-old patient complained about the doctor in a video later picked up by a popular Telegram channel.
The mother, Anastasia Akinshina, said Buyanova had referred to her child’s father, a Russian soldier killed fighting in Ukraine, as a “legitimate target” of Kyiv’s troops during a clinic visit in January.
Buyanova’s lawyers and the doctors in the video say there is no hard evidence – such as an audio or video recording – to prove she made the statement.
The prosecution’s case was based almost entirely on Akinshina’s account and a transcript of an interview with the child conducted by a Federal Security Service (FSB) officer. The judge rejected the defence’s request to question the boy.
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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