Russian pensioner released without charge after solo anti-war picket in St. Petersburg

An 84-year-old St. Petersburg activist who was taken into custody after she staged a solo anti-war protest outside the Hermitage on Sunday, was released from police custody hours later without charge, according to independent news outlet Bumaga.

Lyudmila Vasilyeva, who survived the almost 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad as a child, was detained on Palace Square at around noon on Sunday as she held up an anti-war poster, Bumaga reported.

As soon as Vasilyeva arrived on the square in front of the Winter Palace, she was warned by police not to display her banner. However, Vasilyeva ignored their request and did so, after which she was detained and taken to a nearby police station, Bumaga continued. While the full text of her sign was illegible, the bottom half read: “With love to the people! A child of the siege of Leningrad.”

In May, Vasilyeva was fined 10,000 rubles (€111) for a solo protest that was found to have “discredited” the Russian army. “As long as there is no peace, nothing good will happen either in Russia or in St. Petersburg,” Vasilyeva said at the time, pledging to “continue to fight”.

A staunch critic of Vladimir Putin, Vasilyeva is a veteran of the St. Petersburg protest movement and was detained at several anti-war rallies in the city in 2022. Last year, Vasilyeva attempted to run for city governor, though she was ultimately forced to drop out of the race in July after failing to collect the requisite number of signatures needed to register her candidacy.

Vasilyeva was also caught exchanging heated words with police officers in the centre of St. Petersburg on the 10th anniversary of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov’s murder in February, footage of which went viral.