The court sentenced Medinsky to 10 years for a textbook on ‘Russian history’

This was announced by the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv has handed down a guilty verdict against Volodymyr Medynskyi and Anatolii Torkunov.

They were the editors of the Russian 11th-grade textbook “History. History of Russia. 1945 – the beginning of the 21st century”, published in the Russian Federation in 2023.

According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, from 1 September 2023, this textbook was used in schools in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

It was also distributed within the Russian Federation.

The Prosecutor General’s Office stated that the textbook had become one of the tools of Russian information policy in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

According to the OGP, its content contains public calls to change the territory and state borders of Ukraine, justifies the Russian Federation’s armed aggression and the temporary occupation of Ukrainian territories.

Furthermore, as noted by the prosecutor’s office, the textbook instils in pupils a distorted and ideologically biased view of recent historical events.

What Medynskyi and Torkunov were charged with

The Office of the Prosecutor General emphasised that the Russian Federation pays particular attention to children in the occupied territories as one of the most vulnerable groups of the population.

According to the prosecutor’s office, through these teaching materials, they are being indoctrinated with the notion of so-called ‘brotherly nations’, the independence of Ukraine as a state is being denied, and the Russian version of the war is being propagated under the guise of the so-called ‘our own’.

Prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General proved in court the guilt of Medynskyi and Torkunov under Part 2 of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – an attack on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine.

They were also found guilty under Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – justifying and recognising as lawful the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine and glorifying its participants.

The court sentenced each of them to 10 years’ imprisonment with confiscation of property.

Who are Medinsky and Torkunov?

Vladimir Medinsky is an aide to Vladimir Putin and head of the Russian delegation in negotiations with Ukraine.

Anatoly Torkunov is the rector of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As reported by ThePublic, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv lifted the ban on Telegram following an appeal from students.

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