TALLINN, Estonia — A doctor accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine to a patient was convicted Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison, part of an ongoing Kremlin crackdown on dissent.

Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to authorities. Akinshina claimed that Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier who was killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for troops in Kiev and blamed Moscow for the war.

A video of an outraged Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicized, and the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, personally called for a criminal case to be filed against the doctor.

Buyanova, who was born in western Ukraine, has denied the allegation, insisting she never said what she was accused of saying. In a tearful closing statement to the court last week, she asked it to acquit her.

Her defense argued that the prosecution had not presented evidence that the alleged conversation took place, including any recordings of it, and argued that her accuser fabricated the story out of animosity towards Ukrainians, according to independent news site Mediazona, which reported all the situations. hearings in the process.

In her closing statement to the court, Buyanova said it was “painful” to read the charges in the indictment and she broke down.

“A doctor, especially a pediatrician, is not capable of wishing harm to a child, its mother, or to traumatize the child’s psyche. Only a monster is capable of this and the words I said,” Mediazona said.

“Spreading false information” about the military has been a crime since March 2022, when Russia passed a series of laws banning any public expression about the invasion that deviated from the official narrative. The authorities began to actively use them against critics and protesters.

According to OVD-Info, one of Russia’s main rights groups that tracks political arrests, more than 1,000 people have been involved in criminal cases on charges related to speaking out or acting against the war.