Russian survivor of Leningrad Siege fined for protesting Ukraine war
Russian activist Lyudmila Vasilyeva, an 84-year-old survivor of the siege of Leningrad in World War Two, has been fined by a court after protesting Russia's war in Ukraine.During her sentencing hearing in St Petersburg on Friday, Ms Vasilyeva was ordered to pay 10,000 rubles ($126; £93) for "discrediting" the Russian army. The charges related to a handwritten poster she held up earlier this year which read: "People, let's stop the war. We are responsible for peace on the planet Earth. With love, Lyudmila Vasilyeva, child of the Leningrad blockade."Russia has cracked down on criticism of its military action in Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.
In an interview with AFP ahead of her hearing at Kuibyshevsky District Court on Friday, she said she felt "bitterness" and "hurt" over the fate of her country."I have always been someone who is not indifferent, from childhood. I have always been on the side of the weak," she said.She was greeted by dozens of supporters outside the courtroom. Footage showed her holding flowers and receiving applause.Fined for yellow and blue shoes: How Russian laws smother dissentThe 84-year-old survived the Siege of Leningrad as a very young child with her four siblings and mother. The military blockade of Leningrad by Nazi Germany lasted 872 days, from 8 September 1941 to 27 January 1944. About 800,000 people died from hunger, cold and shelling by Nazi troops.Speaking to AFP, Ms Vasilyeva recalled that her mother used to tell her: "'We will get through everything, as long as there is no war'".The name of the city of Leningrad was restored to its pre-Soviet era name, St Petersburg, in 1991.Ms Vasilyeva has long been a critic of Russia's war with Ukraine having been detained several times in 2022. Last year, she ran for governor of St Petersburg but failed to collect the required number of signatures for a nomination, as reported by BBC Russian.The Russian law that penalises "discrediting" the army has been applied to a broad variety of actions, which the Kremlin interprets as either support for Ukraine or criticism of the war.They include displaying anti-war posters, with messages ranging from "No War" to eight asterisks - the number of Russian letters that spell "No War".The war in Ukraine has been raging for more than three years and military experts estimate between 165,000 and 235,000 Russian service personnel have been killed since the full-scale invasion.Ukraine last updated its casualty figures in December 2024, when President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged 43,000 Ukrainian military deaths. Western analysts believe this figure is an under-estimate.
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