Russian woman reportedly charged with violating protest rules after sending video message to Putin for presidential Q&A show

A resident of Russia’s Moscow region says she was charged with a misdemeanor offense for allegedly organizing an unsanctioned protest rally after she and her neighbors recorded a video message to Vladimir Putin as part of his annual televised question-and-answer program, “Direct Line,” earlier this month.

In the video, the residents complain that no land has been allocated to children’s infrastructure (such as playgrounds) in Sofino, their village. The neighbors are shown holding posters that read “Our children are not a priority.”

Marina Smetannikova, the woman facing the charges, stressed that the posters did not contain any “statements, political demands, or slogans that are banned in Russia.” Moreover, she said, a group of the same size was filmed holding the same signs in an earlier local news report and did not face any backlash from the authorities.

Another Sofino resident, Yelena Maksimenko, said that she wasn’t in the earlier video but that the police nonetheless showed up at her door on December 10 demanding an explanation for the “unsanctioned protest.”