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 “created a monster and a murderer.”
Irina Tsybaneva, 60, was found guilty of desecrating cemeteries out of political hatred.
Her lawyer revealed that the woman did not plead guilty because she did not physically desecrate the grave or seek publicity for her action.
The note Tsybaneva placed on the grave 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 prays for his death. Death to Putin. You created a monster 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 consultant who advised the Ukrainian president’s office to a list of “extremists and terrorists.”
In a January interview with the European edition of Russia’s independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Smolyaninov said he would hypothetically participate in the conflict only 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 struck a residential building as a result of Ukrainian air defenses.
A Russian military court has sentenced Nikita Tushkanov, a Komi history teacher, to five and a half years in prison for comments he made about last year’s explosion of the Kerch bridge linking 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 extensive crackdown has criminalized criticism of the war.
In addition to fines and prison terms, the defendants were either 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: TSF
