A Russian court has sentenced two teenagers to hard time for graffiti and anti-war social media posts. Lyubov Lizunova, 16, was sentenced to 3.5 years in a penal colony, while 19-year-old Alexander Snezhkov got 6 years, the court’s press service said Thursday.
The two were detained by federal agents in October 2022 for writing “death to the regime” in graffiti in the city of Chita.
Since President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has ordered a crackdown on dissent across Russia.
Investigators claimed the two teens were also guilty of “extremist activities” and “calls for terrorist activities” because of social media posts in support of anti-war protests.
“We’re living in a time of repression. There is a fight now against dissent, the destruction of our own people in war and in peacetime,” Snezhkov told Radio Free Liberty’s Siberian service after his arrest, warning that “it will only get worse.”
At that time, Snezhkov said his biggest fear about imprisonment was being forced into the ranks of the Wagner Group and sent to Ukraine to wage war: “I won’t fight either way, I won’t kill,” he said.
This post was originally published on Daily Beast
