Traitor from Crimea gets 10 years in prison for Russian propaganda

The court found Anastasia Gridchina, a deputy of the occupation "State Council of Crimea", guilty of collaboration and spreading Russian propaganda. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property.

This was reported by the Center for Public Investigations.

According to the investigation, Hrydchyna lives in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and cooperates with the Russian occupation administration. She participated in television broadcasts on Russian-controlled channels, where she promoted Kremlin propaganda narratives and justified the war against Ukraine.

In particular, in August 2022, she appeared on the Prime Time program on the Millet TV channel in Simferopol. During the broadcast, according to the investigation, she supported the actions of the Russian leadership and the Russian armed forces, using phrases such as "our country" and "our armed forces." She also referred to the occupied territories of Ukraine as "liberated" and repeated propaganda claims about the alleged "civil war" in Ukraine.

In addition, in September 2022, during an interview on Krym 24 TV channel, Hrydchyna openly supported the holding of so-called "referendums" on the accession of the occupied districts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to Russia. According to the investigation, she called these events a "holiday" and spoke of expectations of a common future for these territories with Russia.

In her speeches, she also spread statements that Russia was allegedly waging a defensive war and that Ukraine and its allies were the aggressors. Among other things, Hrydchina repeated propaganda messages about "protecting the population of Donbas" and the "Nazi regime" in Ukraine.

In subsequent broadcasts on Millet TV channel in 2022-2023, she continued to justify the occupation of Ukrainian territories and spoke about the allegedly positive consequences of Crimea's accession to Russia. She also called for support for the Russian military.

According to media reports, Anastasia Hrydchyna was born on November 13, 1988 in Simferopol. As of 2024, she worked as the editor-in-chief of the Krym Segodnya news agency and headed the Ukrainian Community of Crimea organization.

The court sentenced her to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property and a ban on holding public office. The sentence will start from the moment of her arrest.

The Security Service of Ukraine also completed a pre-trial investigation into a Crimean propagandist who justified Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine and spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

Анна Бальчінос