A St. Petersburg court fined Leningrad siege survivor Lyudmila Vasilyeva 10,000 rubles ($126) for staging an anti-war protest, the court’s press service said Friday.
Vasilyeva, 84, held a rare solo demonstration in February to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She stood outside the historic Gostiny Dvor shopping center with a sign reading: “People, let’s stop the war! We’re responsible for peace on planet Earth.”
She reportedly protested for around an hour despite multiple police attempts to detain her.
Roughly 50 people came to support Vasilyeva during Friday’s court hearing in St. Petersburg, though only two were allowed inside the courtroom, according to the exiled news outlet Govorit NeMoskva.
Vasilyeva was briefly detained at least three times for protesting in 2022, shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion. She unsuccessfully ran for the office of St. Petersburg governor last fall.
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