Video of a Russian student removing a portrait of President Vladimir Putin from her classroom wall has gone viral – a day before planned protests against the jail time of poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, according to a report.
Alina Morozova, a student from Yaroslavl who was believed to be 16 years old, was sent to a police station with her father to explain her opposition, East2West News reported.
Videos of schoolchildren replacing Putin’s portraits in their classroom with Navalny’s are going viral on TikTok.
The teen apparently didn’t break any law by removing the strongman’s photo, so, at least for now, there’s no penalty, according to the news report.
“The arrest of Alexei Navalny caused great resonance not only among young people but also among adults,” Alina, who posted a video of her act on TikTok, told Open Media.
“On TikTok, this resonance is impossible not to notice – everything screams about it, even jokes about it appear,” she said. “I didn’t think the video would be viewed 2 million times at all.”
The girl added that her teacher and the school principal have confronted her with her actions.
“They all had different opinions about my act, and they have a right to do so,” said the teenager.
But the president’s portrait is not a state symbol by law, she said, explaining why it’s not illegal to remove it.
“With my video I have expressed my social position to which everyone in school is entitled,” said Alina.
But her teachers eventually reported her to the police, added Alina, who said they had a “pre-emptive talk” with her about the incident.
The Russian Ministry of Education has released a statement calling on parents to ‘protect’ their children from events scheduled for Saturday, saying that ‘no one has the right to drag young people into various political actions and provocations’.
Meanwhile, Moscow police detained three top Navalny employees on Thursday evening.
On Friday, the dissident’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, was ordered to spend nine days behind bars, while Georgy Alburov was sentenced to ten days in jail.
Navalny’s ally Lyubov Sobol was released late Thursday but was ordered by a court to pay a fine equivalent to $ 3,300. All three have been charged with violating protest rules.
More than a dozen activists and Navalny allies in various Russian regions have also been detained.
With protests scheduled by its supporters on Saturday, the Russian Attorney General and the police have issued public warnings against attending or calling for unauthorized rallies.
Prosecutors also demanded that Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media and internet watchdog, restrict access to websites with calls for protest.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “it is only natural that there are warnings … about the possible consequences of non-compliance with the law” as there are calls for “unauthorized, illegal events”.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged residents not to attend a meeting, citing concerns about the coronavirus, calling the demonstration “ illegal. ”
Navalny was arrested on Sunday when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had recovered for nearly five months from a nerve infection he blames on the Kremlin.
On Monday, a judge ordered him to be jailed for 30 days in connection with alleged violations of a suspended prison sentence in an embezzlement he said was fabricated.
With pole wires