In Ivanovo, candidate of medical sciences Olga Nazarenko died, who, because of the pickets, was tried under the “Dada” article and under the article about “discrediting” the army. This was stated by the lawyer from the human rights project “OVD-Info” Oscar Cherdzhiev, who represented her interests.
For the last two weeks, Nazarenko, whose case has been considered in court since July, has been in intensive care, the Ivanovo publication “KstatiNews” clarifies.
The card on the website of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Ivanovo indicated that the consideration of the case was suspended due to “the lack of a real possibility of the defendant’s participation in the trial.”
Olga Nazarenko has taught at the Ivanovo Medical Academy since 2000 and was an associate professor at the Department of Pharmacology. In October 2022, she was suspended from work at the request of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which sent a letter to the academy.
The teacher said that she had been going on pickets since 2018 — in support of the Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who was then on a hunger strike, and other political prisoners . She went to protests on February 24, 2022 and subsequently held anti-war pickets.
Since the beginning of the war, three protocols have been drawn up against her under the article on violation of the legislation on rallies (20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences) and one — under the article on “discrediting” the army (20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). In total, she was given fines of 260 thousand rubles and 260 hours of compulsory work. Nazarenko, as noted by OVD-Info, carried out her work cleaning the territory of a children's park and caring for animals in the zoo.
The administrative penalties that came into force made it possible to initiate criminal cases against the Ivanovo resident in the fall of 2022 under “Dadinskaya” an article on repeated violations of the legislation on rallies (212.1 of the Criminal Code) and an article on “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code). The reasons were Nazarenko’s pickets and anti-war leaflets, which, according to investigators, she posted.
“Now it’s difficult for me to make plans for the future,” Olga Nazarenko told the OVD-Info project. in October 2023. “If the sentence is not connected with a real term, then, of course, I will have to look for a new job that has nothing to do with teaching. But for some reason I am sure that I will most likely get a prison sentence for my anti-war position.”