Week-ending 2 January 2026
‘In the late 80s and the 90s, if someone had said that there would be political prisoners in Russia again, that the sentences for saying things would be longer than they are for murder, I would have thought that that person was insane. But here I am, already in my second year in prison, because, among the 400 or so songs in many of the world’s languages on my VKontakte playlist, are a few in Ukrainian. That was the basis for my arrest on charges of “inciting hatred or antipathy”. This “incitement” was against Russians: the charges passed over the Russian Federation’s many other nationalities in silence, as second-class citizens not even worth a mention. It wasn’t specified who I incited to hatred and antipathy against Russians, but it’s not hard to guess that they had in mind people who speak Ukrainian. […] What has happened to me, and to other prisoners of conscience, demonstrates clearly this government’s real character. It is based on lies and violence. Its aim is to force us to become sheep, marching to the beat of drums made from our own skins. But in spite of the merciless repression, in Russia there were and there are people who have not renounced their ideals, their truths, because only those truths are worthy of devoting their lives to. And for me it’s a great honour that, by the will of fate, I now stand by side with these wonderful people. […]’
– Aleksandr Nesterenko, an associate professor in the faculty of philosophy at the Moscow state technical university [translated by Simon Pirani]
– source: Simon Pirani, ‘”Your power is based on lies and violence”: three years for sharing Ukrainian songs,’ People and Nature, 4 January 2026
Background from Simon Pirani: ‘On 19 December, the Liublin district court sentenced Nesterenko, an associate professor in the faculty of philosophy at the Moscow state technical university, to three years, Mediazona stated in its introduction. The 62-year-old lecturer has been in custody since September 2024 because he saved on his page on VKontakte [a Russian language site similar to facebook] a clip of the songs “We are growing” by Voply Vidopliassov [Screams of Vidopliassov, a Ukrainian rock-and-roll band], “We were born at a great time” [a Ukrainian nationalist anthem] and “Bandera is our father, Ukraine our mother” [a Ukrainian song that Nesterenko denies having circulated]. Experts saw in these songs “evidence of incitement to violent actions against Russians, as a group defined by nationality” and “to the destruction of Russians as military opponents”. To start with, Nesterenko was accused of “inciting hatred or antipathy” [Article 282:2 of the Russian criminal code] and “advocating extremism” [Article 280:2]. But in court the prosecutor said that the first charge was “unnecessary”, and asked that Nesterenko be sent to a prison colony for four years on the second charge. Before sentencing, Nesterenko made a final statement, which we reproduce here in full.’
