INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A Russian court on Wednesday extended by six months the detention of opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who risks being jailed 10 years for
denouncing President Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine.The 39-year-old Moscow city councilor is in the dock as part of an unprecedented
crackdown on dissent in Russia, with most opposition activists either in jail or in exile.He faces up to 10 years behind bars, if
convicted.Yashin refused to leave after Putin sent troops to Ukraine on Feb
24 and regularly took to his YouTube channel, which has 1.3 million subscribers, to condemn the Kremlin's offensive.Standing in the
defendant's glass box at Moscow's Meshchansky district court, Yashin smiled and flashed a peace sign at the end of the hearing as some of
his supporters clapped.'Russian patriot'Yashin insisted in court that he would not flee the country, but the judge extended his detention by
said.Prosecutors argued that Yashin should be kept in detention because he had "inflicted considerable damage to Russia" and "increased
lawyers, Vadim Prokhorov, said that extending Yashin's detention until May 10 was against the law.Yashin sought to put on a brave face
At one point he asked his father if he had watched the World Cup match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night and they
exchanged a laugh.As the hearing ended and the audience was leaving the courtroom, a scuffle erupted between court employees and Yashin's
father, apparently after guards told his mother to stop talking to her son.The men tussled in the corridor for several minutes, with
Yashin's father at one point held on the floor
He was taken to another room for some time before being released by the guards.The next hearing is expected to take place on Nov
29.Yashin is an ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and was close to Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician assassinated near
"fake" information about the Russian army under legislation introduced after Putin launched the operation in Ukraine.In an April YouTube
stream, Yashin spoke about the "murder of civilians" in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha where the Russian army has been accused of war crimes.He
called it a "massacre."His supporters at court said authorities were using the draconian legislation to muzzle critics of the military
campaign in Ukraine."This law is absolutely anti-legal," said Anastasia Leonova, 48."It's just there to shut people up."Her 20-year-old
daughter, Olga, said their family liked Yashin's Youtube streams."We would gather in the kitchen every Thursday to watch them," she said
"Me, mum and my 87-year-old grandmother."Since Moscow's intervention began in Ukraine, independent media outlets have been shut down or
embezzlement charges, which is widely seen as politically motivated
His political organizations have been outlawed.
