Russia seeks an 8-year prison term for an artist and musician who protested the war in Ukraine

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian authorities are seeking an eight-year prison term for an artist and musician who was jailed after protesting the war in Ukraine. Sasha Skochilenko was arrested in her native St. Petersburg in April 2022 on charges of spreading false information about the military after replacing supermarket price tags with slogans decrying the invasion earlier in the year. Her arrest took place about a month after the authorities adopted a law effectively criminalizing any public expression about the war that deviates from the Kremlin’s official narrative. Russian media cited Skochilenko as saying that she was “in shock” over the severity of the punishment the authorities are seeking.