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.
Weird, I thought we were living in a literal 1984 dictatorship. Did they forget to tell Putin?
People go to prison for posts on the internet, yet some are still wondering why Russians don’t protest.
Because protesting gets you prison.
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.
Here’s hoping they assassinate Putin soon.
Sadly there’s no guarantee that whoever would replace him would be better.
They should install me. Id be the best dictator.
I’d vote for you.
Not important, but she’s 54?! With slightly more modern glasses and hair she could pass as 24!
Fr I didn’t even notice until you said it and I read the text afterwards.
Meanwhile on hexbear
I honestly want to see the discourse, but it would just kill brain cells
“This is fine” - tankies
