A woman in Russia has been arrested after leaving a note on Putin’s parents’ grave. In it she describes the President as a “murderer” and a “freak”.
Saint Petersburg – “Death to Putin, you raised a freak and a murderer.” A St. Petersburg woman has been placed under house arrest after leaving a note on the grave of Vladimir Putin’s parents expressing her opinion on the Russian President and his Ukraine war clearly expressed.
As Newsweek reports, on October 6, the day before Putin’s 70th birthday, 60-year-old accountant Irina Tsybaneva reportedly got to the gravestones of Putin’s parents at Serafimovsky Cemetery to leave her note, despite security guards. In it, she not only described the Russian ruler as a “murderer” and “freak”, but went on to write: “Parents of a serial killer, take him with you, we have so much pain and misery from him, the whole world is praying for his death.”
Criticism of Putin and his war: Cemetery guards found the note on the grave
Her son Maxim Tsybanev told the independent Russian-language news portal Mediazona that his mother was never particularly political. Even after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, she did not discuss the war with her family, which includes two children and three grandchildren. However, this is said to have changed after Tsybaneva saw a report on the war on TV.
He drew her attention to the fact that “everything is very scary and sad that many people have been killed,” Tsybaneva told the court. After cemetery guards found the note and sent it to law enforcement agencies, the police initially took the 60-year-old, identified by surveillance cameras, into custody. A DNA test and handwriting experts confirmed the note was hers.
Loud criticism of Putin: activist has already put a sign on Putin’s parents’ grave
Actions like these are described by the Kremlin as a “special military operation” — they can face prison sentences of up to 15 years. Tsybaneva was initially placed in a temporary detention center. The criminal case in which she was accused of desecrating a gravesite out of political or ideological hostility found that the note contained a “negative assessment of Russian President Vladimir Putin”. She was placed under house arrest until November 8, 2022: during this time she is not allowed to use the internet, telephone or post as a means of communication.
Tsybanev told Mediazona that while the punishment was “harsh, it really isn’t that bad in the context of the current situation in this country”. The action is not the first of its kind. The activist Anastasia Filippova previously put a small sign on the grave of Putin’s parents. It read: “Your son is behaving disgracefully! He skips history class, fights with classmates and threatens to blow up the whole school! Act!”
Most recently, even Russian state television criticized Putin. This shows that there is at least some dissatisfaction with the war. (tt)
