In Russia, a woman is detained for eight days for writing “No to War” on her ballot

She wanted to condemn her country’s invasion of Ukraine. A woman was sentenced to eight days in detention by a Russian court on Wednesday March 20 for writing a slogan on her presidential ballot, which resulted in the re-election of Vladimir Putin. This woman “Taking a ballot and writing ‘No to War’ in red marker on the back, she then put the ballot in the ballot box”, St. Petersburg, the country’s second city Dzerzhinsk district court said.

The Court held that the defendant had thus “Insulted state property and defamed the Russian Armed Forces” and sentenced her to a fine of 40,000 rubles (about 400 euros) and eight days of administrative detention.

Vladimir Putin was re-elected on Sunday with a landslide that was condemned “No relation to reality” By opposition in exile. However, his opponents managed to show themselves at the same time, on Sunday afternoon, by gathering in polling stations, especially in front of Russian embassies abroad. According to the NGO OVD-Info, which specializes in monitoring repression, 119 people were arrested for various protest actions during the Russian presidential election.