Russia has made its stance clear about anti-war and anti-military activities by sentencing a 19-year-old to jail in a penal colony.
As reported by CNN, on Friday, April 18, Darya Kozyreva, who was accused of repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian army, and attaching a Ukrainian poet's poem on a renowned statue, was sentenced to two years and eight months.
Darya was detained on February 24, 2024, after she glued a verse by Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko onto his monument in St Petersburg.
The verse, which was taken from My Testament read, "Oh bury me, then rise ye up/ And break your heavy chains/ And water with the tyrants' blood/ The freedom you have gained."
According to OVD-info, an independent Russian human rights group, a second case was opened against her in August 2024, after in an interview with Radio Free Europe, she called Russia's attacks in Ukraine "monstrous" and "criminal."
The teenager also ran into trouble with authorities in high-school, when in December 2022, she wrote "Murderers, you bombed it. Judases," on an installation dedicated to the twinning of the Russian city St Petersburg and Ukraine's Mariupol.
Furthermore, Darya was expelled from university a year later for making a social media post discussing the "imperialist nature of the war," according to Memorial, a respected human rights organisation.
The verdict was condemned by Amnesty International Russia Director Natalia Zviagina, who said, this incident is "another chilling reminder of how far the Russian authorities will go to silence peaceful opposition to their war in Ukraine."
As of now, more than 1,500 people are imprisoned on political grounds in Russia, and around 20,070 people have been detained for anti-war stance since the beginning of war.
