Dmitry Gudkov. Photo: Telegram

A Moscow court has sentenced Russian politician Dmitry Gudkov in absentia to eight years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian army, the city’s court press service reported on Wednesday.

The case against Gudkov was based on a video that he posted on his YouTube channel in April 2022, which the Investigative Committee found to have spread “false information” about the Russian military killing civilians in the Kyiv region towns of Bucha, Irpin and Borodyanka in the early days of the war.

Reacting to the sentence from exile, Gudkov described his criminal conviction as “the same badge of honour as being declared a foreign agent, but on steroids”, though he added that he felt no inclination “to mock the decision”.

“My thoughts today are with the hundreds of real Russian political prisoners — not those jailed in absentia — who are hoping against hope for either another prisoner swap,” or the end of Putin’s life, Gudkov added.

Both Gudkov and his father, Gennady, are former members of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, and served as deputies for the social-democratic A Just Russia party, currently led by Sergey Mironov.

The Russian government placed Gudkov on its list of “foreign agents” in February 2023. Both he and his father had left Russia before the war began in 2022.