Olesya Krivtsova, a 20-year-old university student, faced up to a decade in prison for “justifying terrorism” and “discrediting the Russian armed forces”. She has now fled to Lithuania, The New York Times has reported.
Krivtsova was put on trial for an Instagram post where she questioned why Ukrainians had rejoiced when the bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea was attacked in October.
For this post, Krivtsova was included in the Kremlin’s official list of terrorists and extremists. She was placed under house arrest and forbidden from using the phone or the internet.
However, the student did not wait for a courtroom verdict and fled Russia to Lithuania last week.
“I decided to leave because I was desperate. It is impossible to prove anything to the Russian court,” she told The New York Times from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
According to the Russian media, the country’s government added Krivtsova to the federal wanted list this week, and a court ruled that she be arrested in absentia.
Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Krivtsova posted comments on social media condemning the war. On May 9, World War Two Victory Day in Russia, she also printed and distributed leaflets around Arkhangelsk, pointing out that there are war veterans still living in Ukraine, some of whom had died under Russian shelling.
In a video she posted on Telegram after her escape, Krivtsova showed herself cutting off the ankle bracelet she had worn during house arrest. A tattoo of a spider with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s face saying “Big brother is watching” was visible on her other leg.
In the video, she held up a drawing of a broken set of handcuffs accompanied by the word “freedom”.
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