‘War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, enough distortion’: charges against Saint Petersburg protester dismissed

Kuibyshevsky court in Saint Petersburg has dismissed the charges against Alexey Podgornykh, who was previously accused of ‘discrediting’ the Russian army, the court officials say.

Podgornykh was detained on 24 April during his one-man protest. He stood at the Nevsky avenue, the city’s high street, holding a poster which read “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, enough distortion.” The court has declared that the poster “contained antonyms and word groups but no calls to illegal action.” A photo of Alexey holding the poster was used as evidence, however, the court ruled that the photo only proves that Podgornykh was there at that time.

Lev Shlosberg, chairman of the Pskov branch of the Yabloko party, was fined 32,000 rubles (€350) for ‘discrediting’ the Russian army in April. He was penalised for sharing a video of Marina Ovsyannikova interrupting a Russian TV news broadcast on 14 March, carrying an anti-war poster. Sholsbeg’s wife Zhanna was also penalised 30,000 rubles for sharing a picture of her holding a similar poster.

A case against Vera Kotova was dropped by a court in Krasnoyarsk earlier. She was initially fined 30,000 rubles for writing “No to War” on a snow-covered pavement.