Police in St. Petersburg raided an exhibition of 20 pieces with anti-war themes. According to the Agence France-Presse, the police in St. Petersburg took the 20 pieces that were on display. Elena Osipova (77 years old), is currently facing up to 15 year imprisonment for violating a law last year that made “discrediting Russian Armed Forces” and anti-war demonstrations illegal.
Officials claim that the bomb threat led to members of the police coming to the exhibit at a Russian social-liberal Yabloko branch. Officials claim that explosives were not found but officers discovered graphic images on cardboard and canvas on the walls. This could have contained false information about Russian armed forces, according to a statement by the party. France24
Osipova was a vocal voice of dissident against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. After the 2002 hostage crisis at Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater, Osipova began as a radical. In 2022, Osipova said that “that was when I realized that I couldn’t keep silent any longer.” I took a piece poster board and wrote: “Mr. “I took a piece of poster board and wrote: “Mr.
Osipova was repeatedly arrested and fined since then. A video showing her being taken into police custody in Russia in riot gear after she held up anti-war signs in public was shared across social media.
Osipova was once called the “conscience of St. Petersburg” and she survived the Nazis’ 872-day military siege on the city that was previously known as Leningrad. She continued to study art and eventually taught it in St. Petersburg.
“What could be more terrible than what is happening?” Osipova said to Agence France Presse about protest-related arrests in Russia since a law prohibiting such activism was passed. “This is my country, this is my homeland, why can’t I speak?”
External Affairs reports thatover 22,000 people were detained in 2022 for political reasons. 51 of these individuals have been sentenced.
Osipova’s exhibit opened on January 31. It was supposed to last through February 24, which was the anniversary of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.
