In Moscow, all dissent is muzzled

turned up yet?” asked 75-year-old Larisa Solodovnikova. The former space engineer is one of a small crowd queuing to hear Ilya Yashin, an opposition politician, make a final plea at Moscow’s Meshchansky court. The criminal trial is the most prominent of several dozen being conducted against the few Russians who have dared to challenge the wartime censorship machine. Mr Yashin was accused of spreading “fake news” on YouTube about the Russian army’s actions in Bucha, a suburb north of Kyiv where many people died brutal deaths under its brief occupation. Within 40 minutes of the start, a bomb squad had arrived with sniffer dogs to evacuate the courtroom because of a supposed bomb threat, manhandling the unresisting crowd and Ms Solodovnikova onto the frosty street. Mr Yashin faces a nine-year prison sentence.