CNN
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Olesya Krivtsova has an anti-Putin tattoo on one ankle and a bracelet on the other that tracks her every move.
A 19-year-old girl from Russia’s Arkhangelsk region had her device removed while under house arrest after she was indicted for social media posts alleging that authorities discredited the Russian military and justified terrorism. Must wear.
Russian officials have been placed on a list of terrorists and extremists on par with ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban for posting an Instagram story about an explosion at the Crimea bridge in October and criticizing Russia for invading Ukraine. Added Krivtsova.
Krivtsova, a student at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University in the northwestern city of Arkhangelsk, also discredited the Russian military for making critical reposts of the war in a student chat on the Russian social network VK. He has been criminally charged with a crime.
Krivtsova is currently under house arrest in her mother’s apartment in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region, and is prohibited from using online or other means of communication.
“Olesya’s case is neither the first nor the last,” Krivtsova’s attorney, Alexei Kitin, told CNN.
Kitchin said the teenage boy could face up to three years in prison for discrediting the Russian military and up to seven years under the justification clause for terrorism. Krivtsova’s defense, however, wants lighter punishment, including a fine.
independent human rights monitor OVD information In Russia, it said at least 61 cases will be opened in 2022 for justifying acts of terrorism on the internet, with 26 resulting in convictions so far.
Olesya’s mother, Natalia Krivtsova, said the government was trying to warn the public, and her daughter was effectively “publicly whipped” for not defending her opinion herself.
“We live in the Arkhangelsk region. It is a large area, but it is too far from the center. There are no more protests in Arkhangelsk, so they remain in the early stages. They’re trying to strangle everything they have,” Natalia Krivtsova told CNN.
The regional leader of the Communist Party, Aleksandr Novikov, openly mocked the girl on state television, sending her to the front lines of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine and calling her stupid so that she could “see in the eye” of military combat. is. As a member of the Arkhangelsk battalion.
This isn’t the first time Olesya Krivtsova has clashed with authorities for publicly announcing her views. Last May, she faced administrative charges for distributing her anti-war posters and discrediting the Russian military.
Things got even worse last October when she was accused on social media of discrediting the Russian military.A repeat offense under the same clause would lead to a criminal case, according to Krivtsova’s attorney.
“She has a heightened sense of justice, which makes her life tormented. Not being silent is now a great sin of the Russian Federation,” her mother told CNN.
According to Natalya Krivtsova, police allegedly broke into the apartment where her daughter lived with her husband, Ilya, on December 26, forced the young men face down on the ground and threatened them with sledgehammers. Hello” is from the Wagner Group, a private military contractor headed by Evgeny Prigozhin.
CNN has reached out to the Arkhangelsk regional police for comment.
“Olesya saw a video of a prisoner being killed with a hammer and was very scared,” her mother told CNN.
In the infamous video referenced by Natalya Krivtsova, mercenaries from the aggressive prisoner-recruiting Wagner Group apparently executed former prisoner Yevgeny Nuzhin with a sledgehammer after he attempted to escape. The description of the video read, “The traitor suffered the traditional, primitive Wagnerian punishment.”
“The state has some strange policies. Prisoners go to war, children go to prison,” she said.
