A military court in southwestern Russias Belgorod region sentenced Nadezhda Rossinskaya, an anti-war activist who assisted Ukrainian refugees, to 22 years in prison on charges of treason and terrorism, her legal representative and local mediareported Friday.Rossinskaya, who likewise passes the name Nadine Geisler, wasarrested in February 2024 on suspicion ofinciting activities directed against national security.She was laterchargedwithfinancing terrorism and treason.Rossinskayas volunteer effort, Armiya Krasotok (Army of Beauties), claims to have actually assisted 25,000 people in occupied Ukraine in between 2022 and 2023.
Shesaid she fled to Georgia in May 2023, right after Russian authorities detained a girl who had actually donated to her effort.
Rossinskaya is believed to havereturned to the Belgorod region, where she was apprehended on Feb.
1, 2024, to help a Ukrainian pet owner and her 46 pedigree poodles leave Russia.Russian authorities added Rossinskaya to the countrys list of terrorists and extremists in October 2024.
She is noted as having actually been born in Kazakhstan in 1995.
On Thursday, district attorneys asked for a prison sentence of 27 years for Rossinskaya.
Her defense attorney wasreported to ask for an acquittal.
Rossinskaya herself stated she would ask for to be sentenced to 27 years in prison and one day to set a brand-new Russian record if the judge declined to acquit her.On Friday, the Second Western District Military Court sentenced her to 22 years in jail after discovering herguiltyon all three of the charges.In addition, the court fined Rossinskaya 320,000 rubles ($4,000), according to her lawyer Alexei Pryanishnikov.