Politics

400 euros for saying Zelensky is attractive: the Soviet ghost of denunciations returns in Russia

Olga, a retiree from Moscow who had gone to spend a few days at a spa in the Caucasus, didn't expect to end her vacation in a police station. Especially not after joking in the cafeteria that she found Volodymyr Zelensky "an attractive man." It was December 2022, and since the start of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin had hardened his stance terribly. Laws to prosecute comments against the invasion or in favor of UkraineOlga was betrayed by a waitress she'd been having an affair with a while earlier. FSB (formerly the KGB) agents were quick to show up at her door, arrest her, and eventually sentence her to a fine of over 400 euros for discrediting the army.

Olga, a retiree from Moscow who had gone to spend a few days at a spa in the Caucasus, didn't expect to end her vacation in a police station. Especially not after joking in the cafeteria that she found Volodymyr Zelensky "an attractive man." It was December 2022, and since the start of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin had hardened his stance terribly.

Olga was betrayed by a waitress she'd been having an affair with a while earlier. FSB (formerly the KGB) agents were quick to show up at her door, arrest her, and eventually sentence her to a fine of over 400 euros for discrediting the army..