An activist was fined in St. Petersburg for a poster in support of Yulia Tsvetkova

The Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg fined activist Yevgenia Smetankina 20,000 rubles for a one-man picket in support of artist and LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova, accused of distributing pornography. This was reported by the lawyer from OVD-Info, Veronika Karagodina, who represented the interests of Smetankina in court.

Smetankina was found guilty of organizing an uncoordinated event (part 2 of article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) on May 23, despite the fact that she stood alone in the picket that day and there were no other pickets nearby.

The defense plans to appeal the court's decision.

On October 21, Smetankina's case was returned to the district court after consideration of the appeal, Veronika Karagodina, a lawyer from OVD-Info, reports.

• On May 25, Smetankina was detained at the exit from the house when she was heading to work. According to the activist, she was detained following a complaint about a picket on May 23 in support of Yulia Tsvetkova.
• Pickets in support of the artist and LGBT activist Yulia Tsvetkova were held in St. Petersburg on May 23, her birthday. Tsvetkova is charged under an article on the distribution of pornography on the Internet (paragraph “b” of part 3 of article 242 of the Criminal Code) due to the publication of drawings and pictures in the public “Vagina Monologues” on VKontakte. In May, she went on a hunger strike : the girl demanded not to drag out the trial, appointing one meeting a month, to make it open to all listeners and to allow the public defender into the process.