Sasha Skochilenko replaced price tags with news reports about bombings in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. An artist in St Petersburg faces up to ten years in prison for an anti-war protest in which she replaced supermarket shelf price labels with short news texts about the bombing of an art school and drama theatre in Mariupol, the besieged Ukrainian port city. Judge Yelena Leonova, ruled that Sasha Skochilenko, 32, must be held in pre-trial detention until 31 May. She was arrested after a supermarket customer reported the labels to the police. Perekryostok was caught on security camera footage and questioned late into the night of 11 April according to her lawyer, who was quoted by independent news sources.
According to PaperPaper, a St Petersburg news site for which Skochilenko used to work and which has, like most independent news sources, been blocked in Russia, the judge said that Skochilenko is “accused of carrying out serious actions against public safety”, and that “acting deliberately, she installed fragments of paper containing knowingly false information.” The fact that she “has friends in Ukraine” and “a sister in France” are grounds to keep her in prison rather than under house arrest. It is a crime to describe Russia’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine as a war, according to a new law that took effect on 4 March.
via artpaper: St Petersburg artist faces prison after anti-war protest in grocery store