Russian police arrest activist for building a rally of anti-Putin snowmen

A woman has been interrogated by Russian police for building snowmen carrying anti-Putin slogans.  

Yelena Kalinina was ordered to an interrogation amid a police drive to suppress dissent following nationwide protests in support of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny.

In her rally of snowmen, the placards read: ‘Tsar go away’, ‘Vova (Vladimir) it’s all over between us’, and ‘This is our country’.

Using a line by eighteenth century German dramatist Georg Büchner, she attacked President Vladimir Putin’s alleged £1billion Black Sea palace in Gelendzhik, comparing it to a peasant’s hovel.

It reads: ‘Peace to the huts! War on the palaces!’

She posted the pictures online but credits heavy-handed police with bringing them to millions of viewers.

‘The police came and made a complaint against me that the snowmen were saying the wrong things,’ she said.

‘They gagged them, took the posters, and sent them for forensic examination.’

She was ordered to the police station but used her constitutional right to remain silent. 

Yelena was released and told that officers were seeking to find a precedent that she had broken the law by building anti-Putin snowmen.

‘I’m just an activist and the posts on my page were tracked by the authorities,’ she said. 

‘The police did all the work to popularise the snowmen. I give them my thanks. We will make more.’

She said there were no local complaints in her village, Zachyachye, 110 miles from Arkhangelsk, about the snowmen rally.

A senior law enforcement official had ordered the raid, she said.

‘They understand it is a stupid thing. This was not their initiative.  It was not a complaint from local people that provoked them, nor their desire to suppress the snowmen. This was an order from above.’

Putin has denied owning the spectacular palace with a pole dancing boudoir.  

Yulia’s interrogation comes amid a Kremlin crackdown on pro-democracy Russians and extensive police efforts to crush anti-Putin messages. 

Last week, police interrogated a 16-year-old girl for removing a portrait of Putin hanging in her classroom and posting a video of it on TikTok.  

Today, investigators announced they had opened a criminal case against Leonid Volkov, a close ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, accusing him of urging teenagers to take part in unauthorised protests last weekend.   

Volkov’s arrest follows yesterday’s searches of Navalny’s Moscow properties for evidence he breached coronavirus restrictions by calling for the protests.

Navalny, 44, was arrested on return to Russia following months of treatment for novichok poisoning in Berlin, which he maintains was an assassination attempt ordered by President Vladimir Putin. 

After his imprisonment, the Kremlin dissident called on pro-democracy Russians to protest and demand his release. 

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of activists poured into 70 Russian cities to support the 44-year-old’s cause.  

Police reported 3,900 arrests, including Navalny’s wife Yulia, and were accused of employing ‘brutal tactics’ to ‘suppress’ the crowds, which left many demonstrators bloodied and injured. 

Interior ministry officials and sources close to Navalny today confirmed his home and offices are being searched as part of a criminal probe into whether the rallies’ organisers had breached coronavirus protocol. 

A Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman today accused organisers of the protest of creating a ‘threat of the spread’ of coronavirus. 

Ivan Zhdanov, the head of the FBK Anti-Corruption Foundation, a non-profit formed by Navalny in 2011, said on Twitter that Navalny’s wife Yulia was at one of the apartments as police were gaining entry to the home. 

She posted a video from inside where loud hammering could be heard outside the door.

‘They are not letting in my lawyer. They broke my door in,’ Yulia Navalny yelled to journalists from out of her apartment window, an AFP journalist reported.

Zhdanov posted a screenshot from a security camera at the office of the foundation, showing several masked men there.

The FBK is best known for its investigations into the wealth of Russia’s political elite.

Its most recent report suggested President Vladimir Putin was gifted an opulent property on the Black Sea Coast costing over $1.5 billion.

The investigation was released days after Navalny was arrested on his return on January 17 from Germany, where he spent months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning he blames on the Kremlin. 

As Moscow cracks down on its critics, the Kremlin said it plans to punish social media platforms which failed to delete posts to join in Saturday’s protests. 

Social media platforms, most notably popular teenage platform TikTok, were flooded with thousands of posts calling on Russians to demonstrate ahead of Saturday.  

In respon
se, Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor warned platforms they would face fines for failing to delete such posts and said that several had removed a significant number.

Roskomnadzor decided today that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Youtube, would be fined between 800,000 rubles (£7,700) and four million rubles (£38,600) for failing to comply with its requirements ‘to suppress the spread of calls to minors to participate in unauthorised rallies’. 

Protests in Russia are banned if they are not approved by the authorities, as are calls for people under 18 to join demonstrations.

Also on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin complained about the growing influence of large technology companies, which he said are ‘competing’ with states.

Hashtags dedicated to Navalny have been trending on TikTok, where they have garnered more than 1.5 billion views, after the anti-corruption crusader was jailed on his return to Russia from Germany.

His allies have called for a new round of demonstrations this Su