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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/TheDarthSnarf on 2023-11-08 15:49:51.
Russian artist who staged anti-war supermarket protest faces eight years in jail
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Nov 8 (Reuters) - A female Russian artist who staged a protest against Moscow’s war in Ukraine by replacing supermarket price tags with trenchant calls to stop the conflict is facing eight years in a penal colony after a court hearing on Wednesday.
Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, an artist and musician known to her friends as “Sasha”, carried out the protest on March 31 2022, replacing price tags in a supermarket in St Petersburg, Russia’s second city, with five little pieces of paper urging an end to what Moscow calls a “special military operation”.
She is being tried on the charge of knowingly spreading fake information about the Russian army, an offence punishable in her case by up to 10 years, but which can sometimes lead to a 15-year jail term.
Russia tightened its laws on dissent soon after sending its troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, deepening a crackdown on critics whom Moscow sees as unacceptably divisive at a time when the country is locked in what President Vladimir Putin has cast as an existential struggle with the West.
Copies of the imitation price tags which got her into trouble in the first place remain on display on a website maintained by her supporters lobbying for her to be freed.
One of the tags accused the Russian army of bombing a theatre in the port city of Mariupol where around 400 people were hiding - a charge Moscow said at the time was false.
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