Russia hands an 8-year prison term to a newspaper publisher in Siberia over Ukraine war criticism

A Russian newspaper publisher has been convicted by a court in Siberia and sentenced to eight years in prison after his paper reported on Russia’s attacks on civilians in Ukraine. Local media and rights activists say the court in the city of Gorno-Altaysk convicted Sergei Mikhailov, a prominent journalist in the Siberian region of Altai and the publisher of the local newspaper Listok, or “Leaflet” in Russian, of “spreading false information” about the Russian army. Under a new law adopted in 2022, shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine, it has become a criminal offense in Russia to criticize the war. Hundreds of Russians, including multiple journalists, have been prosecuted under the law in an unprecedented government crackdown.