Woman fined for ‘Sex is cool but putin’s death better’ tote bag in Russia’s Krasnodar

Alexandra (she asked not to mention her surname), 21, has been fined 30,000 rubles (€290) for “discrediting the Russian army” by a Krasnodar court, she told Mediazona.

The woman said that the court materials contained five screenshots published on her Instagram profile with 180 followers. The materials contain a photo of a bag with “No war” written on it, a similar graffiti, a photo of a “Peace” sticker, as well as a tote bag with ‘Sex is cool but putin’s death better’ printed on it.

On 28 June, two police officers dressed in plain clothes arrived at Alexandra’s home to tell her about a complaint. The woman was taken to a police station where she was asked to show a tattoo on her shoulder depicting a dog with a rainbow scarf with “Gay dog” written underneath it.

“They told me to roll up my T-shirt sleeves, inspected all my tattoos, asked to translate what phrases in English mean, and took pictures of my face and tattoos,” Alexandra told reporters.

The woman told the Sphera human rights organisation that she was not allowed to call a lawyer. “They said that if a lawyer shows up now, we will start the whole legal machine. We will dig up more staff there, and it will be much worse,” she said.

In the end, Alexandra was charged with two administrative crimes: “promoting non-traditional sexual relations” and “discrediting the Russian army”. The first charge resulted in a 200,000 ruble (€1,945) fine on 26 July.

A police officer told the court hearing that Alexandra’s posts were discovered during a social media monitoring operation. He also failed to explain how the woman’s tattoo violates the law, she told Mediazona.

“He was saying some incoherent things: ‘Propaganda, propaganda’,” Alexandra says. “The lawyer directly asked him: ‘Explain to us where the violation is’. He responded with: ‘Well, I believed that this is a violation’,” she added.