Vyacheslav Volodin. Photo: Russian State Duma

The speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, has been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison in Ukraine, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Thursday.

During a trial held in absentia, Volodin was found guilty of violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity, with Ukrainian SBU investigators arguing that he had “directly participated” in preparing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

According to the SBU, Volodin also publicly supported the decision to recognise the independence of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk “People’s Republics”, later annexed by Russia, and voted for the ratification of treaties of “friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance” in February 2022 that were used as a pretext for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The SBU added that Volodin continued to justify “the temporary seizure” of Ukrainian territories while supporting the “armed aggression of Russia”.

Because Volodin resides on Russian territory, the SBU noted that the beginning of the politician’s sentence would be determined from the date of his detention in Ukraine.

Volodin, a former aide to Vladimir Putin, has served as the speaker of the State Duma since 2016, and is known for his enthusiastic efforts to do the Kremlin’s bidding by introducing and steering repressive legislation through Russia’s increasingly rubber-stamp parliament, including the military censorship bill that was hastily approved by the chamber in the weeks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.