MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) -Russia on Tuesday sentenced a journalist to four years in prison for working with a foreign media outlet and allegedly helping prepare content that “discredits” the Russian army. Since launching its offensive on Ukraine, Moscow has aggressively ramped up its crackdown on domestic critics and independent media outlets.

Russia’s FSB security service accused the woman — identified by rights groups as Nika Novak — of “cooperating on a confidential basis with a representative of a foreign media outlet,” the Interfax news agency reported, citing the regional court. It said she “assisted in preparing inaccurate materials that discredited the Russian armed forces and state institutions,” adding the work was “aimed at causing reputational damage to the Russian Federation” and “destabilising” the country amid the Ukraine campaign. She was arrested in December 2023 in Moscow and put on trial in the Siberian region of Zabaykalsky Krai, where she worked. The trial was held behind closed doors and the court did not state which foreign media outlet she was accused of working with. (Jamaicaobserver)