A Russian court on Thursday sentenced a St. Petersburg woman to two years in prison, with a suspended sentence, who left a message on the grave of President Vladimir Putin’s parents, saying they had “created a freak and a killer “.
Irina Tsybaneva, 60, was found guilty of desecrating cemeteries out of political hatred.
Her lawyer revealed that the woman pleaded not guilty because she did not physically desecrate the grave or seek publicity for her action.
The note placed on the grave by Tsybaneva on the eve of Putin’s birthday in October read: “Parents of a maniac, take him home. He causes so much pain and trouble. The whole world is praying for his death. Death to Putin. You have made a freak and a killer.
Since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has cracked down on dissent not seen since the Soviet era.
In another case, a Russian government agency added actor Artur Smolyaninov and a former adviser who advised the Ukrainian president’s office to a list of “extremists and terrorists”.
In a January interview with the European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Smolyaninov stated that he would hypothetically only participate in the conflict on the Ukrainian side.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich resigned after claiming online that a Russian missile that killed 45 people in the city of Dnipro hit a residential building due to Ukrainian air defenses.
A Russian military court has sentenced Nikita Tushkanov, a history teacher in Komi, to five and a half years in prison for comments he made about last year’s explosion of the Kerch bridge connecting Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula to mainland Russia.
Tushkanov was found guilty of justifying terrorism and “discrediting” the Russian military.
The professor posted messages on social media in October calling the bridge explosion “a birthday present” for Putin.
The Kremlin’s wide-ranging campaign of repression has criminalized criticism of the war.
In addition to fines and jail terms, the suspects were fired, blacklisted, branded “foreign agents” or fled Russia.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Source: DN
