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Russian Court Sentences Driver Who Struck Poet Lev Rubinstein

Poet Lev Rubinstein. Natalia Senatorova (CC BY-SA 4.0)

A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced the driver involved in a road accident that resulted in the death of poet and writer Lev Rubinstein to a suspended prison term of one year and eight months.

The motorist, whose name was not given, was found guilty of violating traffic rules that led to the death of a person through negligence. He was also banned from driving for two-and-a-half years.

Rubenstein was struck by a car in a Moscow intersection on Jan. 8. He died at the hospital several days later from injuries sustained in the accident.

The independent broadcaster TV Rain reported that the poet suffered a traumatic brain injury.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Rubenstein was part of the underground literary scene in Moscow and is considered one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism. His first works were published in the Soviet Union only in the late 1980s.

Rubenstein was also an important social activist who took part in demonstrations against the persecution of writers and artists, against repressions in Russia and Belarus, as well as against the invasion of Ukraine.

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