Anna Chagina, a music teacher and violist, has been fined 100,000 rubles ($1,046) in a criminal case of discrediting the army. The charges were based on the anti-war content of her posts on the VKontakte social media platform. This information was reported by the "TV2" publication on August 7.
The court has sentenced Anna Chagina to a fine and a two-year internet writing prohibition. She has been found guilty of repeatedly discrediting the army. She published anti-war posts on VKontakte and quoted texts of Nikolai Karpitsky, a Tomsk philosopher who lives in Ukraine and comments on the bombings of Ukrainian cities.
In her final statement, Chagina said, "War inflicts irreparable harm upon our nations. I firmly believe that no one can win this war. Only love has the potential to emerge victorious. It endures ceaselessly, being an eternal force. Even now, amidst the exchanges of gunfire and the loss of lives, we possess the ability to stop this conflict as soon as possible."
Anna Chagina was first fined for discrediting the army in March 2022 after she was detained at a rally against the war in Ukraine.
Numerous educators in Russia have been fined because of their anti-war views. For instance, historian Pavel Kolosnitsyn from Veliky Novgorod had to pay a fine of 30,000 rubles ($312) for abusing mass information freedom because of his comments regarding mobilization. Philologist Tatyana Novikova from Belgorod was also fined 30,000 rubles for her anti-war remarks on social media platforms. The public had raised the necessary funds for her within 2.5 hours.
