A Russian appeared in court today because condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Russian leadership in a random street interview he gave to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the first of its kind in the midst of widespread repression in Russia.

The trial was adjourned after a brief hearing and will resume on September 18.

In July 2022, as RFE/RL reporters asked passers-by on a Moscow street their views on the war in Ukraine, 37-year-old Yuri Kokhovets responded that President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government are villains, responsible for the war while rejected the arguments put forward by the Kremlin to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Our government claimed it wants to fight (Ukrainian) nationalists, but it’s bombing shopping malls,” he said in this video posted to social media by RFE/RL.

He also accused the Russian military of “needlessly murdering” civilians in Buka, a site near Kiev that was the scene of a massacre attributed to Russian forces at the start of the 2022 invasion.

“We have to stop all this. In our country, one man can stop all this,” he said at the exit of a metro station, referring to Putin.

Last March, Kokhovets was arrested by police and fined 500 rubles (about 5 euros at the current exchange rate) after being held for 48 hours in a police station on charges of “hooliganism,” according to the Russian non-governmental organization OVD- Info.

Authorities later changed the charges against him to charge the 37-year-old with “spreading false information about the Russian armed forces,” a charge introduced into the criminal code at the start of the Russian invasion. Thousands of Russians have since been convicted on that charge, in some cases with heavy prison terms.

Kokhovec faces imprisonment up to 10 years.

His case is the first known prosecution in Russia for comments he made in an interview criticizing the invasion of Ukraine. The 37-year-old made the remarks to Radio Svoboda, the Russian arm of RFE/RL, a US-sponsored Cold War-era media outlet.

Almost all major dissidents and critics of the Russian leadership have left the country or they are in prison, with the most prominent case being that of Alexei Navalny, who has been sentenced to heavy prison terms.

Thousands of Russian citizens have also been convicted for their opposition to the Russian invasion, either by participating in protest actions or simply posting on social media.

According to OVD-Info, almost 20,000 people have been arrested since February 2022. This week alone, Russian courts are scheduled to consider 71 cases of a political nature.