A court in the Russian city of St. Petersburg sentenced anti-war activist Olga Smirnova to six years in prison on August 30 on a charge of spreading fake news about the armed forces. Smirnova was also banned from administering websites for three years. Prosecutors asked for a seven-year sentence.
The 54-year-old activist of the Peaceful Resistance movement was arrested in May 2022. Investigators say she placed materials about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine on the Internet that contradicted official Defense Ministry statements.
Smirnova pleaded not guilty, and her lawyers say they intend to appeal the decision.
Not important, but she’s 54?! With slightly more modern glasses and hair she could pass as 24!
Six years is nothing for someone that doesn’t age, hence the smile.
I was a little confused by the smile too, assuming she was no older than 30. Losing 6 years of your youth seems harder than 6 years in your 50s. Although it depends on the conditions she’s kept in.
If you go into the article, there is a little caption in the corner of the image that says “Social Media”. So I guess this picture was from before her arrest?
As someone close to 50, it sure as hell doesn’t to me.
Fr I didn’t even notice until you said it and I read the text afterwards.
Here’s hoping they assassinate Putin soon.
Sadly there’s no guarantee that whoever would replace him would be better.
Then rinse and repeat.
Then assassinate that one too
The question then is what kind of Russia will we get when the dust settles?
I don’t know. But at this point things I’m not seeing a civil way out of the current situation.
Another day in Russia, another sane person gets arrested for going against the insanity
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Russian people don’t protest for many reasons. 1 There is no free mass media in the entire country. Majors are has only one way to get information about the world - TV, which is fully controlled by government. TV zombifier full time tell them “Ukrainians attacking is!”, “USA wants Russians to die!”, etc. If every media tells the same lie and for you this is the only source of information - you will inevitably believe.
2 Russia has no opposition-leader to follow. Good candidates: Navalny and Yashin, were enjailed for years. Sane Russian people confused and don’t know how to act in the current situation. We are too disunited for country-wide rally.
3 Peacefull protests don’t work at all. I have participated in every rally in the last 10 years, and each time the government reaction was rougher and rougher. Looks like only power of weapon can help us get free, but citizens has no personal arms, police and army are full loyal to gov.
Because protesting gets you prison.
Weird, I thought we were living in a literal 1984 dictatorship. Did they forget to tell Putin?
Meanwhile on hexbear
I honestly want to see the discourse, but it would just kill brain cells
“This is fine” - tankies
Putin demands complete control here.
