A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a Russian-American citizen to three and a half years in prison after he criticized the country, its leadership and its war in Ukraine on social media.
Yuri Malev, 60, identified in court as a security guard at the MatchPoint sports complex in Brooklyn, was arrested in Russia last December. He was charged with “rehabilitating Nazism” for two social media posts that expressed “a blatant lack of respect for society” and “insulted the memory of World War II” and its veterans, the court said.
Malev, the court said, admitted his guilt and was sentenced in an accelerated procedure.
While it is common for people who criticize the war and Russian officials to be prosecuted in the country, the sentence against Malev, a first-time offender, was unusually harsh, his lawyer and a family member said.
Malev joins a list of U.S. citizens currently in Russian custody, including Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal; Paul Whelan, former US Marine; and Alsou Kurmasheva, editor working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The detentions of American citizens in Russia in recent years have raised fears that the Kremlin is trying to use American citizens as bargaining chips to exchange for Russian individuals detained in the West.
According to his lawyer, Ruslan N. Aidamirov, Malev was expected to receive a much more lenient sentence and said he was very “depressed” by the court’s decision.
Aidamirov said in a telephone interview that he believed the case against Malev was “not politically motivated” because he was not a political activist. He added that Malev was charged after a Russian woman complained to police about his posts.
A graduate of the prestigious St. Petersburg State University law school, Malev had lived in the United States since 1997, according to Mark Livshitz, his uncle. He visited Russia every year, but was arrested after the large-scale military invasion of Ukraine.
“He hid it from us,” Livshitz said of the trip to Russia, adding that Malev enjoyed spending time in the country with his former classmates and other friends. “I knew I wouldn’t let him go there.”
Livshitz, 79, said Malev was “very worried” about the war in Ukraine. He described him as a “shy and harmless” man.
Malev, who had already been in pretrial detention for almost six months, will spend his sentence in a penal colony with relatively relaxed rules. But Livshitz said she found it difficult to imagine how Malev, who recently survived a serious illness, would endure this ordeal.
Livshitz said he and his wife had wanted to go to Russia to support Malev, but his daughter “took away their passports” out of fear that they, too, might have legal problems there.
He said the family was devastated by the sentence, which was not expected because Mr Malev admitted his guilt.
“It’s terrible, terrible,” Livshitz said.