Alexandra (21) received a financial penalty for expressing her opinion publicly.
To act as she does is an act of civil courage in Russia now. She shows that it is possible to voice disagreement, even when the powerful threaten with punishment.
She is from Krasnoyarsk, a city of about 1 million people in the Far East of Russia.
The Russian state imposed a first fine on her for posting a picture of the tattoo on the left – showing a dog with a rainbow scarf and the inscription ‘The dog is gay’ on her social media. I understand her tattoo as a request for better treatment of gay people in current Russia. It could be better.
Alexandra being fined for 200.000 rubles for LGBT+ “propaganda.
Secondly she was fined for 30.000 rubles (300 $) for posting a picture of a bag with the inscription “Sex is cool, but Putin’s death better” on her Instragram account. I am hearing her deep pain about current political decisions in Russia in this, as well as her request for change.
The vlogger who creates ‘Insights from Ukraine and Russia‘ shared about Alexandra’s case and included her personal response to the verdict of the Russian court – which I reprint here.
Alexandra responds:
“I feel sad that nowadays, even on my little social media page, expressing my opinion has become unwelcome and unsafe, and that fines have to be paid for my thoughts and images. I can’t know for sure how I was found and why someone became interested, but I believe that someone must have reported me, seeing that the page is open to the public. Especially with such posts that might not appeal to everyone.”
Thank you, Alexandra, for being who you are.
May this hero of everyday life be seen for this courageous action of standing up for her beliefs in a time and place where it takes courage to do so. May this action inspire us to see that to give into fear is an option but not mandatory – in whatever situation and whereever we are.
Report from Mediazona
August 3, 2023, 12:36 (Russian Original on Mediazona)
The Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar fined 21-year-old Aleksandra 30,000 rubles under the article on “discrediting” the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The girl herself reported this to Mediazona.
According to Alexandra, the “discredit” case file contains five screenshots from her Instagram with 180 followers, including a photo of a bag with the inscription “No to war” and similar graffiti, a picture of a sticker with the inscription “Peace”, a screenshot from stories and a photo of a cotton bag with the inscription “Sex is cool but putin`s death better”.
On June 28, two plainclothes policemen came to the girl’s house. They told Aleksandra that they had received a complaint against her, so they took her to the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Krasnodar. There, the girl was asked to show a tattoo on her shoulder in the form of a dog with a rainbow scarf, above which is the inscription “The dog is gay.”
“They told me to raise the sleeves of my T-shirt, examined all my tattoos, asked me to translate what the inscriptions in English mean, and also took photos of my face and tattoos,” says Alexandra.
According to the human rights organization Sphere, the police forbade the girl to call a lawyer. The department drew up two protocols against Alexandra – under the article on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” (Article 6.21 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and “discrediting” the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
The trial under the first protocol took place on July 26 in the Magistrate’s Court No. 56 in Krasnodar. According to Alexandra, the judge rejected the defense’s motion to order a linguistic expertise in the case, imposing a fine of 200,000 rubles on her.
In court, the police officer who drew up the protocol said that the girl’s posts were discovered during “monitoring of social networks.” The policeman could not explain at the trial how exactly Alexandra’s tattoo violates the law.
“He said some incoherent things: “Propaganda, propaganda,” says Alexandra. – The lawyer asked him directly: “Explain where the violation is here.” He’s like, “Well, I thought it was a violation.”