Russians snitching on friends, family who criticize Ukraine invasion

Around 70 Russians are facing prison time for criticizing the Kremlin and its war in Ukraine under a law that bans spreading “deliberately false information about Russia’s armed forces,” according to reports.

In practice, the sweeping law has is being used to silence all criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military action” in Ukraine, reports VICE World News.

Over 1,500 have been fined under the law since it went into effect in March.  

Moscow has aggressively cut its citizens off from independent media and foreign news sources since the invasion began on Feb. 24. Thousands of Russian citizens who disagreed with Putin’s decision scrambled to get out of the country before sanctions closed off travel options.

The isolation and disinformation law has contributed to an atmosphere of suspicion, where Russian have begun turning in their friends, neighbors and event relatives who express misgivings about the Ukraine invasion.

Elmira Khalitova, a student and blogger interviewed by VICE, said she was reported to police by her own father, who called and told them she had been calling for Russian to be killed online while drunk.

Authorities brought her in for questioning but had to release her after failing to get into her Instagram account because Meta had blocked the app in Russia.

Khalitova said the experience reminded her of the Soviet Union, when denunciations by “concerned citizens” sent hundreds of thousands of people to the Gulags. But she mused it would take “a few more years… for it to reach the same scale” as back then.

A man named Sergei Chmykhun even came forward to tell VICE about how he had turned an acquaintance named Oleg into law enforcement for speaking out against Putin and the war in a group chat.

“For several years, Oleg was freely criticising Russia and Putin, and nobody really paid any attention,” Chmykhun told VICE.

“But after the military operation began… I asked him, and warned him several times, that if he doesn't stop doing this, I will make him stop one way or another.”

Oleg, who has a disabled son, faces 10 years in jail. Chmyukhun said he had no regrets, calling his former friend “a traitor to the motherland.”