Russian author Boris Akunin, who was recently sentenced to a lengthy prison term in absentia after supporting Ukraine, warned other countries on Monday to be vigilant against creeping repression.

“Don’t repeat our mistakes,” the 69-year-old author told diplomats gathered at an event on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Akunin, a longstanding critic of the Kremlin and its military offensive on Ukraine, was sentenced in July to 14 years behind bars after a Moscow military court found him guilty, among other things, of “aiding terrorist activity” with pro-Ukraine comments and “justifying terrorism” over a 2024 Telegram post in which he said he was “for revolution” in Russia.

Speaking alongside Belarusian Nobel Literature Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, whose books h

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