The artist Sasha Skochilenko was sentenced for 7 years in prison for replacing five supermarket price tags with pieces of paper with facts about the cost of the war in Ukraine.
“When Russia is free again, we will owe her a great debt”, writes Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova who also spent two years in prison for criticizing Putin.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Despite the fact that I am in a cell, it is possible that I am much more free than all of you.” These were the defiant words of the 33-year-old Russian artist Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko in the closing statement of her trial in St Petersburg last Thursday.
There’s something so morally wrong and disturbing in the fact that Sasha, a pacifist who was jailed for protesting against the war in Ukraine and insists that a human life is the most sacred miracle in the whole world, will be forced to produce military uniforms for the Russian army.
If this comes to pass, the war in Ukraine will come to an end, Russian troops will leave Ukrainian territories (including Crimea), and Sasha will be immediately released and her conviction annulled.
Sasha’s health is quickly deteriorating in prison: she has chronic conditions, including a congenital heart defect, bipolar disorder and coeliac disease.
We thought that the authoritarianism and imperialism of the USSR were behind us, that we could listen to our favourite queer pop stars, speak freely, and love whomever we wanted.
My very first words when I was released from a penal colony in 2013 were: “Russia will be free.” I still believe this – even though any future freedom will come with a deep generational shame and debt to the entire world: to the people of Ukraine most of all.
The original article contains 914 words, the summary contains 230 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It is as usual a terrible summary, mangling bot, and too many people trust you.
Yeah it really doesn’t work very well on an opinion piece. It’s like taking chapters out of a book.