A court in the city of Vladimir has placed acclaimed violinist Asya Sorshneva under house arrest on charges of “financing extremist activities,” Russian media reported on Friday.
Sources cited by the local news outlet Chesnok said Sorshneva, 42, had pleaded guilty to donating to the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s banned Anti-Corruption Foundation between August 2021 and February 2022.
Russian authorities outlawed the Anti-Corruption Foundation and Navalny’s wider political network as “extremist” in 2021. Financing such a group carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.
Local news outlet Zebra-TV, citing FSB and police statements, reported that Sorshneva made seven “extremist” payments during the period in question, though it did not name her or the foundation directly. The outlet noted that courts in the Vladimir region have so far imposed fines, not prison terms, in similar cases.
Separately, the Oktyabrsky District Court in Vladimir earlier this week received notice of administrative charges against Sorshneva for “discrediting” the Russian military, the exiled news website Mediazona reported.
A graduate of the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Sorshneva is a laureate of two international competitions and winner of a special prize from Austrian string manufacturer Thomastik-Infeld. She has performed across Europe at major festivals with ensembles and orchestras, including those of Yury Bashmet and Teodor Currentzis.
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