Russian artist critical of Ukraine war faces prison sentence
A Russian court in St. Petersburg is set to rule in the case of artist Aleksandra Skochilenko, who replaced supermarket price tags with drawings critical of the war in Ukraine. She faces prison time if convicted of violating Russia's wartime censorship laws.
Transcript
00:00 This is a comic book by Russian artist Sasha Sokchilenko.
00:06 In it, she explains what depression is and how to support a relative or a friend who suffers from it.
00:14 But now Sasha herself needs support.
00:17 She's been in detention for one and a half years,
00:20 accused of spreading so-called "fake news" about the Russian army.
00:24 Friends, relatives and even people who've never met her are trying to draw attention to her case.
00:30 One of them is Boris Romanov, an activist from St. Petersburg.
00:35 He knows exactly what it's like to be in Sasha's position.
00:39 He was arrested for breaking the same law passed by Russian lawmakers
00:44 in the first days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
00:47 But Boris managed to escape Russia and is now in Germany.
00:53 I feel a sense of responsibility.
00:59 I was sharing information about political prisoners before.
01:04 Now, since my whole life has been turned upside down because of the arrest
01:08 and I had to leave my country and start over, I feel even more involved.
01:19 Sasha Sokchilenko was arrested in April 2022 for replacing supermarket price tags
01:26 with demands to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
01:29 Prosecutors are seeking an eight-year sentence as punishment,
01:33 which her relatives and friends believe is inhumane.
01:37 I'm just trying not to think about it too much.
01:41 Basically, I'm hoping for a miracle,
01:43 because I know very well that a heavy prison sentence would be a catastrophe for Sasha.
01:50 Sasha's well-being is what her mother is concerned about most.
01:54 The 33-year-old has several illnesses and her health is deteriorating in detention
01:59 due to a lack of medical assistance.
02:02 She'll survive because she is a very strong person.
02:07 But at what cost?
02:09 I just push that thought away because I'm really afraid.
02:14 I still can't see the end of this process.
02:17 In fact, it probably helps me to survive because there is no end in sight.
02:25 But I don't know how it's going to end.
02:29 Even in detention, Sasha continues to draw.
02:33 Friends publish her prison diary on a website.
02:36 They also sent a box of her books to Boris in Germany.
02:40 Most of them have been sold and the money used to pay Sokchilenko's lawyers.
02:45 To continue helping her, Boris now wants to publish her book in Germany.
02:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]