Oleg Orlov: Russian activist compares courts to Nazi Germany

The sentence was seen as a clear sign that Russia was increasingly cracking down on public dissent.

Speaking by video link from custody in the central city of Syzran, Orlov told the Moscow city court in his final statement that he regretted nothing and would not repent.

“I’m in the necessary place at the necessary time,” he said. “When there are mass repressions in the country, I am with those who are being persecuted.”

He also quoted a passage by Telford Taylor, a US prosecutor involved in the convictions of senior members of the Nazi regime after World War Two, who said: “They distorted, perverted and in the end achieved the total destruction of justice and law. They made the judicial system an integral part of the dictatorship.”

“These words can be uttered now by any Russian political prisoner,” he added.

“These words are surprisingly appropriate to characterise the current state of the Russian judicial system.”