Two young men attacked 76-year-old artist Elena Osipova near her apartment building in St. Petersburg, taking away her anti-war posters that she planned to bring with her to picket in the city centre, cameraman Nikita Adishchev told the Rotonda Telegram channel. The cameraman witnessed the incident as he was shooting a documentary about the artist.
“I was with her because I was shooting a documentary about her. When I approached her apartment building, I saw two weird guys wearing masks. She was leaving the building carrying her posters. The two men ran towards her and pushed her. She didn’t fall, physically she’s fine. They took the posters and ran away. The guys were about 20-25 years old,” Adishchev told the Bumaga news outlet.
He added that Osipova was “very upset.”
Osipova has been taking to the streets with posters calling for peace with Ukraine since 2014. The artist regularly attends protests in St. Petersburg. She has been detained several times for carrying signs saying “We don’t want to go to heaven to die for Putin,” and “No to nuclear weapons worldwide.” In April, Italian lawmakers offered her the title of an honorary citizen of Milan “as a sign of solidarity and kinship with the woman that acts as a symbol for citizens of Russia.”
