SME
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Olesya Krivtsova is sporting an anti-Putin tattoo one ankle and a bracelet the tracks each step on the opposite.
The 19-year-old from Russia’s Arkhangelsk area should put on the gadget whereas she is underneath home arrest after she was charged over social media posts that authorities say discredit the Russian military and justify terrorism.
Russian officers have added Krivtsova, together with ISIS and al Qaeda, to their listing of terrorists/extremists. She posted an Instagram story in October concerning the blast on the Crimean Bridge. It additionally criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Krivtsova was a scholar of Northern (Arctic) Federal College. This college is situated in Arkhangelsk’s northwestern area.
At the moment, Krivtsova is staying underneath home arrest in her mom’s condominium in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk area, banned from going surfing and utilizing different types of communication.
“Olesya’s case is just not the primary, neither is it the final,” Alexei Kichin, Krivtsova’s lawyer, advised SME.
Kichin said that {the teenager} might face three years imprisonment for discrediting Russia’s military, and 7 years underneath Article of Justification of Terrorism. Nevertheless, Krivtsova’s authorized protection hopes for a softer punishment equivalent to a nice.
Impartial human rights monitor OVD Information stated that Russia had obtained not less than 61 felony instances in 2022 for justification of terrorism through the web. There have been 26 convictions to this point.
Olesya’s mom, Natalya Krivtsova, says the federal government is attempting to present a warning to the general public, along with her daughter being in impact “publicly flogged” for not preserving her views to herself.
“We stay within the Arkhangelsk area and this can be a huge area however too distant from the middle. There are not any extra protests in Arkhangelsk, so they’re attempting to strangle every thing that’s left at its early stage,” Natalya Krivtsova advised SME.
An area head of the Communist Celebration, Alexander Novikov, publicly mocked {the teenager} on state tv, calling her a idiot who needs to be despatched to the entrance strains in Ukraine’s japanese Donbas area in order that she might “look into the eyes” of the army preventing as a part of the Arkhangelsk battalion.
This isn’t Olesya Krivtsova’s first run-in with the authorities for publicly airing her views. She was accused of discrediting Russian Military by publishing anti-war propaganda.
The state of affairs grew to become much more difficult when Krivtsova was charged with discrediting Russia’s military through social media in October. Based on Krivtsova’s lawyer, a repeat offense underneath the identical article turns right into a felony case.
“She has a heightened sense of justice, which makes her life exhausting. The shortcoming to stay silent is now a serious sin within the Russian Federation,” her mom advised SME.
Based on Natalya Krivtsova, police burst into an condominium on December 26 the place her daughter was dwelling along with her husband Ilya, forcing the younger individuals to lie face down on the bottom and allegedly threatening them with a sledgehammer, which the officers advised her was a “good day” from the Wagner Group, a non-public army contractor headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
SME reached out to Arkhangelsk’s state police for feedback.
“Olesya was very frightened as a result of she noticed the video wherein a prisoner was killed with a sledgehammer,” her mom advised SME.
Natalya Krivtsova referred to the well-known video the place mercenaries with the Wagner Group who actively recruit prisoners execute Yevgeny Nazhin, a former prisoner, utilizing a Sledgehammer to smash his escape try. The video description stated: “The traitor obtained the standard, primordial Wagnerian punishment.”
“The state has some unusual insurance policies: prisoners go to warfare, and kids go to jail,” she stated.
