Alexander Rodnjansky has been sentenced to 8.5 years in prison by the Moscow court

Two-time Academy Award nominee Alexander Rodnyansky (“Leviathan,” “Loveless”) was sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years in prison by a Moscow court on Monday, with the producer accusing Russian authorities of “instilling more fear” among critics of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

“Dozens of the best Russian writers and musicians were convicted before me for that purpose: silencing anti-war voices,” Rodniansky said in a statement shared with Variety.

The ruling, handed down Monday afternoon in Moscow’s Basmanny Court, sentenced Rodniansky to 8.5 years in prison for his anti-war comments and also banned him from posting on the internet for four years.

The court found him guilty of spreading military “forgeries,” as Russian officials characterize all statements that contradict the official narrative surrounding the war in Ukraine, and determined that his actions were motivated by “political hatred,” the court said. Russian news site Mediazona.

In his statement, Rodnyansky emphasized that authorities had filed a “political case” against him, adding that he was “convicted for speaking about the atrocities of the Russian army in Bucha.”

“The Moscow court’s decision is intended to sow more fear in the Russian film community and prevent them from publicly criticizing the unjust war in Ukraine or Vladimir Putin personally,” he said.

Noting that the Kremlin’s crackdown on anti-war opposition has targeted “dozens” of Russian artists – and many thousands of ordinary citizens – he added: “The difference in my case is simple: I am not Russian, I am Ukrainian.”

The Kiev-born producer, who has lived and worked in Russia for almost thirty years, has been an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022. After receiving a tip that his criticism had put him in the Kremlin’s crosshairs, Rodnyansky successfully fled the country. In October 2022, the Russian Justice Ministry declared him a “foreign agent.”

After launching a prolific media career in Kiev, directing documentaries and founding Ukraine’s first independent TV network, Rodniansky became one of Russia’s most influential producers. His collaboration with filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev earned him Academy Award nominations in the foreign language (now international feature film) category for “Leviathan” and “Loveless.”

“Just a few years ago, before the Russian army’s invasion of my native Ukraine, I lived and worked in Moscow,” Rodnyanksy said in his statement. “My films have won awards at Cannes. Twice they were nominated for an Academy Award representing Russia, and once a film I produced (“Leviathan”) won a Golden Globe. Times have changed dramatically since then and today I am condemned for speaking out against the brutal war in an unashamedly political cause.

“From the first days of the war, when the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation ordered the Minister of Culture to ban all my work in Russia, I knew that my anti-war position would inevitably be punished,” he continued. “It has never stopped me from publicly supporting Ukraine and protesting the war, and of course it won’t stop me now.”

Rodnyansky added that he did not recognize “the authority of the Russian court” or his prison sentence, and said he “will continue to work and speak the truth about the brutality of the Russian invasion, both in the media and through my films. ”