The video of a Russian student removing a portrait of President Vladimir Putin from his classroom wall went viral – the day before the planned protests against the arrest of the poisoned Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, according to a report.
Alina Morozova, a student from Yaroslavl who is believed to be 16, was sentenced to a police station with her father to explain her defiance, East2West News reported.
Videos of schoolchildren replacing portraits of Putin in their classrooms with those of Navalny have gone viral on TikTok.
The teenager apparently did not violate any law by removing the photograph of the strong man, so, at least for now, he faces no punishment, according to the media.
“Alexei Navalny’s arrest caused great resonance not only among young people, but also among adults,” said Alina, who posted a video of her act on TikTok, to Open Media.
“At TikTok, this resonance is impossible not to notice – everything screams about it, even jokes about it appear,” she said. “I didn’t think the video would get 2 million views right away.”
The girl added that her teacher and the school principal questioned her about her actions.
“They all had different opinions about my act and have the right to do that,” said the teenager.
But the portrait of the president, according to the 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 that everyone at school is entitled,” said Alina.
But her teachers ended up reporting her to the police, Alina added, saying they had a “preventive conversation” with her about the incident.
The Russian Ministry of Education issued a statement urging parents to “protect” their children from events planned for Saturday, saying that “no one has the right to drag young people into various political actions and provocations”.
Meanwhile, police in Moscow on Thursday night arrested three top Navalny associates.
On Friday, the arrested dissident’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, was ordered to spend nine days behind bars, while Georgy Alburov was jailed for 10 days.
Lyubov Sobol, a close ally of Navalny, was released on Thursday, but was ordered by a court to pay a fine equivalent to $ 3,300. All three were accused of violating protest regulations.
More than a dozen Navalny activists and allies in various Russian regions were also detained.
With protests planned by their supporters on Saturday, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia and the police issued public warnings against the participation or convening of unauthorized rallies.
Prosecutors also demanded that Roskomnadzor, the Russian media and internet agency, restrict access to sites that contain protest calls.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “there are natural warnings … about the possible consequences related to non-compliance with the law”, as there are calls for “unauthorized and illegal events” .
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin asked residents not to attend a rally, citing concerns about the coronavirus, and called the demonstration “illegal”.
Navalny was arrested on Sunday when he returned from Germany to Russia, where he spent nearly five months recovering from a nervous agent poisoning he attributes to the Kremlin.
On Monday, a judge ordered him to be jailed for 30 days in connection with alleged violations of a suspended sentence in an embezzlement case that he insists was forged.
Wired Poles