Ex-Teacher Sentenced to 5.5 Years for Blaming Crimean Bridge Blast on Putin's Birthday.

A former teacher in Russia has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for referring to the Crimean Bridge explosion as President Putin's "birthday gift" online. The court found him guilty of justifying terrorism and discrediting the Russian military. The ex-teacher was defiant in his opposition to the war while giving his final court statement. Russia has effectively outlawed most forms of dissent under draconian wartime censorship laws passed after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.