Shortly after the explosion on the Crimean bridge in October, 19-year-old student Olesya Kryvtsova posted a story on Instagram criticizing Russia's war against Ukraine.. Her fellow students at the Northern Federal University in Arkhangelsk in the north took a screenshot of this story, as well as Krivtsova's anti-war comments on Telegram, and reported her to the authorities, writes The Washington Post..
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Three months later, Russian officials considered it enough to add Krivtsova to the list of terrorists and extremists, along with the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and accuse her of discrediting the Russian army under laws passed last March to suppress public.
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The case of Krivtsova, a student living in a provincial town near the Arctic Circle, illustrates the depth of intolerance towards dissent in Russia during the war, which is directed not only against organized political opposition movements, but also against the population, writes author Maria Ilyushina.
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RosTV turned this case into an act of propaganda.
State television turned this case into propaganda. On the TV channel "
Her trial is expected to be a showcase aimed at instilling fear in those who do not support the invasion..
Krivtsov was detained twice, the first time at the end of December, when a group of officers slammed on the door of the apartment where she lived with her husband..
" ... I heard these terrible screams - \! » - and all. From that day on, a new life began for us, ”her mother Natalya Krivtsova recalled in an interview..
One of the officers was holding a massive sledgehammer in his hands, and Olesya was afraid that he would hit her husband, her mother said..
Later, on the way to the train station, the officer told Olesya that the hammer was "
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The sledgehammer became an eerie Wagner symbol after a Telegram channel linked to the group released a video of the execution of Yevgeniy Nuzhin, a 55-year-old convicted murderer who was released from prison to fight in Ukraine. Nuzhin was killed with a sledgehammer.
10 years in prison for criticizing the war on the Internet.
In the spring, Krivtsova put up anti-war posters in the city square and was fined $450 for publicly discrediting the Russian armed forces..
She is under house arrest and awaiting trial on charges that could lead to 10 years in prison for a student's online comments critical of the war..