Russian artist who staged anti-war supermarket protest faces eight years in jail

[November 08, 2023]  (Reuters) - State prosecutors in St Petersburg on Wednesday asked a judge to jail a female artist for eight years after she staged a protest against Russia's war in Ukraine by replacing supermarket price tags with calls to stop the conflict. 

Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, carried out the protest on March 31 last year, replacing price tags with pieces of paper urging an end to the war.

Alexandra (Sasha) Skochilenko, a 33-year-old artist and musician charged with spreading false information about Russia's armed forces after replacing supermarket price tags with slogans protesting against the country's military operation in Ukraine, reacts inside an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing in Saint Petersburg, Russia November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov

She was detained in April 2022 after a shopper complained about her action, which included displaying information about civilians allegedly killed in Russian shelling - something Moscow denied at the time - where supermarket prices would usually be.

Skochilenko, who smiled from a courtroom cage on Wednesday, is being tried on the charge of spreading fake information about the Russian army, which is punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

She denies her guilt and says her protest was purely a peaceful one.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

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