76-year-old St. Petersburg resident Galina Baranova, who wrote a denunciation because of the price tags left by Sasha Skochilenko with facts about the war, was surprised at the severity of the punishment requested for the artist. The woman’s words are quoted by “Paper.”
“Of course, to be honest, I think that if [Daria] Trepova is given 15 years, then the paperwork could, of course, be less,” the pensioner told reporters. — I was actually surprised. From the very beginning I told the prosecutors: what kind of stupidity is this? They don't give you the same amount for it. They flogged and released.”
A criminal case was opened against 33-year-old artist Sasha Skochilenko for spreading “fake news” about the Russian army because she changed the price tags in the Perekrestok store on Vasilyevsky Island to anti-war leaflets (clause “e” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code).
The case of Sasha Skochilenko about price tags. Third day of debate
A supermarket visitor, Baranova, contacted the police after seeing the price tag with the words: “The Russian army bombed art schoolin Mariupol, about 400 people were hiding in it from shelling.” As a result, Skochilenko was detained, and since April 2022 she has been in pre-trial detention center, despite health problems. During the debate last week, the prosecutor asked her for eight years in a general regime colony.
In a conversation with Bamaga, Baranova said that she did not consider her complaint a denunciation: “They spat on me, I don’t know how! I am an “informer”! I'm proud of what I did. So, the crime of seeing and passing by is not a shame? <…> I thought it was just stupidity, if you're interested in my reaction. When I saw this nasty thing [the card with the text], I snatched it purely impulsively, I got a fever, I walked away: all I needed was for me to have a stroke because of you! My attitude towards this has not changed. Meanness is always meanness.”
“I actually don’t consider her a criminal. Or rather, I didn’t count until all this further chaos began <…> True, it’s surprising, of course, that others were simply fined at first. She [Skochilenko], apparently, hoped that she would get off easy and at the same time become a heroine. And I don’t sympathize with her. Especially after what kind of campaign has unfolded here and what kind of bullshit is going around. Oh oh oh!» — added the St. Petersburg woman.