Scores of Russian priests have joined the chorus of voices calling on the authorities to stop the criminal prosecutions of protesters and bystanders following this summer’s mass election protests in Moscow. Around a dozen men, some as young as 21 years old, are being held on various charges after the largest sustained protest movement in Russia since 2011-2013. At least seven of them have been sentenced to prison terms of up to five years, with the conviction of a novice actor triggering widespread public backlash this week.

news Russian Actors Launch Flashmob in Support of Colleague Jailed Over Moscow Protests Read more

“We’re bewildered by the sentences compared with other much milder sentences that the Russian courts handed down to those accused of more serious crimes,” says the open letter signed by 123 priests so far and published on the Orthodoxy and the World website after midnight Wednesday. The jail sentences “look increasingly like the intimidation of Russian citizens than a fair ruling against the defendants,” the letter says. “Trials shouldn’t be repressive, courts shouldn’t be used as a means of suppressing dissent and force shouldn’t be used with unjustified cruelty,” said the priests based across Russia, Europe and Hong Kong. Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vakhtang Kipshidze on Wednesday dismissed the letter as “pointless.”