The video of a Russian student removing a portrait of President Vladimir Putin from the wall of his classroom went viral – a day before planned protests against the imprisonment of the Kremlin’s poisoned critic, Alexei Navalny, according to a report.
Alina Morozova, a 16-year-old Yaroslavl student believed to have been taken to a police station with her father to explain the act of defiance, East2West News reported.
Videos of schoolgirls replacing Putin’s portraits in classrooms with those of Navalny have gone viral on TikTok.
Apparently, the teenager did not break any law by removing the photo of the strong man, so, at least for now, he is not punished, according to the press.
“The arrest of Alexei Navalny caused a great resonance not only among young people, but also among adults,” Alina told Open Media, who posted a video of her act on TikTok.
“On TikTok, this resonance is impossible not to notice – everything screams about it, even jokes about it appear,” she said. “I didn’t think at all that the video would have 2 million direct views.”
The girl added that her teacher and the school principal confronted her about her actions.
“Everyone had different opinions about my act and they have the right to do it,” said the teenager.
But the president’s portrait, by law, is not a symbol of the state, she said, explaining why it is not illegal to remove it.
“With my video, I expressed my civic position to which everyone at school is entitled,” said Alina.
But her teachers eventually reported her to police, Alina added, saying they had a “preventive conversation” with her about the incident.
Russia’s education ministry has issued a statement urging parents to “protect” their children from events planned on Saturday, saying that “no one has the right to draw young people into various political actions and challenges.”
Meanwhile, Moscow police on Thursday night detained three top associates from Navalny.
On Friday, the spokesperson of the imprisoned dissident, Kira Yarmysh, was ordered to spend nine days behind bars, while Georgy Alburov was imprisoned for 10 days.
Navalny’s close ally, Lyubov Sobol, was released late Thursday, but was forced by a court to pay a $ 3,300 fine. All three were charged with violating protest regulations.
More than a dozen Navalny activists and allies from several Russian regions were also detained.
With protests planned by his supporters on Saturday, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office and police issued public warnings against participating in or calling for unauthorized rallies.
Prosecutors also called on Roskomnadzor, the Russian media and watchdog on the internet, to restrict access to websites containing protest calls.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “it is natural to have warnings … about the possible consequences of breaking the law” because there are calls for “unauthorized, illegal events”.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged residents not to attend a rally, citing coronavirus concerns and called the demonstration “illegal.”
Navalny was arrested on Sunday when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he spent almost five months recovering from the nervous poisoning he blames on the Kremlin.
On Monday, a judge ordered him to be jailed for 30 days in connection with alleged violations of the suspended prison sentence in a embezzlement case, which he insists was arrested.
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