Veteran human rights activist Oleg Orlov decried what he called the "strangulation of freedom" in Russia at a court hearing on Monday as prosecutors sought to have him jailed for nearly three years for discrediting the armed forces.

Orlov, 70, has served for more than two decades as one of the leaders of the Memorial human rights organisation, which won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 a year after being banned and dissolved in Russia.

In court on Monday he condemned the authorities for their clampdown on political dissent, the death in prison of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and the conflict in Ukraine.

A district court last year fined Orlov 150,000 roubles ($1,616) - a relatively light sentence for a critic of the Ukraine war, due to his age and health - after he penned an article saying that Russia under President Vladimir Putin had descended into fascism.