MOSCOW (AP) – A feminist artist was tried in Russia on Monday on charges of disseminating pornography after distributing online artwork depicting female bodies. Human rights groups have linked the prosecution to the Kremlin’s conservative stance of promoting “traditional family values”.
The allegations against activist Yulia Tsvetkova, 27, from the far eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur have sparked international outrage. She faces up to six years in prison for allegations related to her group on the popular Russian social network VKontakte, where stylized drawings of her vaginas were posted. Tsvetkova is not allowed to reveal details about the criminal case against her.
The hearing comes a year and a half after it was first detained and eight months after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and instructing the government to “preserve traditional family values.”
Tsvetkova’s lawyer, Irina Ruchko, told reporters after the hearing that she maintains her innocence and the defense intends to prove it in court.
Tsvetkova ran a children’s theater and was a supporter of feminism and LGBT rights. She founded an online group called Vagina Monologues, which encouraged followers to fight stigma and taboos around the female body and posted other people’s art in it.
Amnesty International last week called the case, which is heard behind closed doors, “Kafkaesque absurdity” and urged the Russian authorities to drop all charges. It was said that Tsvetkova only “expressed her opinions through art.”
Tsvetkova’s mother, Anna Khodyreva, echoed this sentiment in an interview with The Associated Press.
“Yulia has always been against pornography. “Feminists are against pornography because it is the exploitation of women’s bodies,” she said.
Tsvetkova was detained in November 2019 and spent the next four months under house arrest. Her home was searched, along with her mother’s children’s education studio.
The activist was twice fined for violating Russia’s law against disseminating gay “propaganda” to minors. The court ordered Tsvetkova to pay a fine of 50,000 rubles ($ 780) in December 2019 for leading an LGBT-themed online group and 75,000 rubles ($ 1,060) in July 2020 for a drawing in support of LGBT families. The second fine was later reduced to 50,000 rubles.
Many public figures have spoken out in support of her, including Russian state television veteran Vladimir Pozner. Activists from all over Russia protested against the criminal investigation, the artists dedicated shows and an online petition demanding the waiver of the accusations, gathering over 250,000 signatures.
An exhibition of Tsvetkova’s paintings opened in St. Petersburg on Saturday.
“The snow globe of censorship has started to bother the artistic community a lot and I understood that if we don’t support Yulia, we don’t support her, anyone else can be next,” said artist Alexei Gorbushin, who organized and participated. at shows in support of Tsvetkova, said at the exhibition.
The European Union delegation in Russia wrote on Twitter that the bloc was “closely following” the case against Tsvetkova and that “apparently her persecution is linked to her public position as an LGBT activist.” The delegation asked the Russian authorities to stop the criminal investigation.
In addition to pressure from authorities over the past two years, Khodyreva says she and her daughter have been threatened with death and have been repeatedly harassed by foreigners. Khodyreva’s children’s education studio has lost many clients. Tsvetkova’s children’s theater, Merak, no longer exists – frequent visits by law enforcement were too worrying for children, so it was closed, Khodyreva said.
“It’s terrifying. I’m still looking back at the door right now, “Khodyreva told AP. “The police have stuttered so many times that … I’m not ready to involve children in this chaos.”
Tsvetkova’s problems began when the children’s theater was preparing to present a play about gender stereotypes, entitled “Blues and the Pinks”, in March 2019, at a theater festival he organized.
The festival lost two locations it found, Khodyreva said, and police asked the children involved in the play if Tsvetkova, who directed it, told them about LGBT issues. The song had nothing to do with LGBT issues – the name referred to the colors traditionally associated with boys and girls – but in the 1990s, “blue” and “pink” in Russian were popular colloquialisms for gay men and women.
According to Khodyreva, the police did not talk to the children’s parents, many of whom supported her and her daughter, and contacts with the police were traumatic for the young theater students.
“I saw how bad the children felt. I saw the boy who came up with the name of the song crying, thinking it was his fault, ”Khodyreva said, adding that another boy who was afraid he had told the police something about her daughter cried.
Tsvetkova was repeatedly summoned for questioning. In March 2019, the activist said she was asked about a series of drawings called “A woman is not a doll.” Cartoon images of naked or half-dressed women bore legends such as “Real women have body hair – and it’s normal,” “Real women have body fat – and it’s normal.” Police said the images were pornographic, Tsvetkova said in a VKontakte post.
On Monday, she was detained and charged with spreading pornography.
The memorial to the important Russian human rights group declared Tsvetkova a political prisoner. The group said her persecution was linked to “her civic commitment and feminist views that she did not hide and promote through absolutely legal means as a contemporary activist and artist” and the narrative of defending the “traditional values” that the Kremlin -he hugged in an offer to gather his strength.
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Alexander Permyakov from Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Yekaterina Krylova from St. Petersburg contributed to this report.