Week-ending 17 December 2021
On 17 December 2021 a Moscow district court jailed Maria Alekhina and Liusya Shtein, both Pussy Riot activists, for 15 and 14 days respectively for the offence of displaying Nazi symbols. Alekhina said she had been charged in connection with a 2015 Instagram post in which she had published a photograph of Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko with Nazi swastikas comparing him with fascists. Shtein said she had been charged in connection with a 2018 Facebook post of her in an SS cap – a screenshot from someone else’s YouTube video.
Sources:
Meduza, 17 December 2021: Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court has jailed Pussy Riot activists Maria Alyokhina and Lyusya Shtein (a municipal deputy) for 15 days and 14 days, respectively, under the administrative article prohibiting the display of Nazi symbols. On Friday, December 17, Alyokhina told Mediazona that the administrative charge was brought against her over a photo of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko with swastikas, which she posted on Instagram in 2015.
RFE/RL, 17 December 2021: A leading member of the Pussy Riot protest group in Russia, Maria Alyokhina, has been detained in Moscow over an online post she made in 2015. Alyokhina wrote on Instagram on December 16 that she was detained for posting a picture six years ago of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka with Nazi swastikas on it, comparing him with “fascists.”
