Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Anastasia has started her day by composing an anti-war message and posting it on the wall outside her building in the industrial city of Perm in the Ural Mountains .
“Don’t believe the propaganda you see on TV, read the independent media! read one. “Violence and death have been with us constantly for three months now – take care,” read another.
The 31-year-old teacher, who asked to be identified only by her first name because she fears for her safety, said she wanted “a safe and easy way to get a message across”.
“I couldn’t do something huge and public,” she told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “I want to get people thinking. And I think we should influence any space, in any way possible.
Despite a massive government crackdown on such acts of protest, some Russians persisted in denouncing the invasion, even in the most straightforward way.
Some have paid a heavy price. In the first wintery days of the invasion in February, authorities moved quickly to quell protests, arresting those marching or even holding blank signs or other oblique references to the conflict. Critical media were shut down as the government sought to control the narrative. Political opponents have been singled out by President Vladimir Putin or public television commentators.
Lawmakers endorsed measures banning the spread of ‘false information’ about what the Kremlin called a ‘special military operation’ and disparaging the military, using them against anyone who spoke out against the attack or spoke about the atrocities that the Russian troops allegedly committed. have committed.
As the war has dragged on into the languid days of a Russian summer, some like Anastasia feel guilty that they cannot do more to oppose the invasion, even within the confines of the new laws.
When Russian troops arrived in Ukraine on February 24, Anastasia said her first thought was to sell all her belongings and move abroad, but she quickly changed her mind.
“This is my country, why should I leave?” she told AP. “I realized that I had to stay and create something to help from here.”
Moscow-based printer and artist Sergei Besov also felt he could not remain silent. Even before the invasion, the 45-year-old made posters reflecting the political scene and put them up in the capital.
When Russians voted two years ago on constitutional amendments allowing Putin to run for two more terms after 2024, Besov used his old printing press with large wooden Cyrillic type and vintage red ink to print posters that simply said: “Against”.
During the 2020 unrest in Belarus over a disputed presidential election and subsequent crackdown on protesters, he made posters saying “Freedom” in Belarusian.
After the invasion of Ukraine, his project, Partisan Press, began making posters saying “No to War” – the main anti-war slogan. The video of the poster being printed became popular on Instagram, and demand for copies was so great that it was given away for free.
After some of his posters were used during a protest in Red Square and some people displaying them were arrested, it became clear that the police “would inevitably come to us”, Besov said.
They showed up when Besov was not there, accusing two of his employees of taking part in an unauthorized gathering by printing the poster used.
The case has been dragging on for more than three months, he said, causing them all a great deal of stress as to whether and to what extent they will be penalized.
Besov stopped printing the “No to War” posters and opted for more subtle messages such as “Fear is no excuse to do nothing”.
He considers it important to continue to express himself.
“The problem is that we don’t know where the lines are drawn,” Besov said. “We know that they can sue you for certain things, but some manage to go unnoticed. Where is that line? It’s very bad and really difficult.
Sasha Skochilenko, a 31-year-old artist and musician in St. Petersburg, has failed to stay under the radar and faces serious consequences for what she thought was a relatively safe way to publicize the horrors of war: she was detained for replacing five price tags in a supermarket with tiny ones containing anti-war slogans.
“The Russian army bombed an art school in Mariupol. Some 400 people were hiding there because of the shelling,” it read.
“Russian conscripts are sent to Ukraine. The lives of our children are the price of this war,” said another.
Skochilenko was really affected by the war, said her partner, Sophia Subbotina.
“She had friends in Kyiv sheltering in the metro and calling her, talking about the horror that was going on there,” Subbotina told AP.
In 2020, Skochilenko taught drama and film at a children’s camp in Ukraine and worried about how the conflict would affect her former students.
“She was really scared for these children, that their lives would be in danger because of the war, that bombs would fall on them, and she couldn’t remain silent,” Subbotina said.
Skochilenko faces up to 10 years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian military.
“It was a shock to us that they launched a criminal case, and a case that involves a monstrous prison sentence of 5 to 10 years,” Subbotina said. “In our country, shorter sentences are handed down for murder.”
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Associated Press writer Francesca Ebel contributed.
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