Irina Nikolskaya

The case was opened over a series of anti-war comments that Nikolskaya posted on VKontakte between 28 September 2022 and 7 February 2023. One of the posts read: “I believe in Russia and that once again it will be able to find the light.” “During that period, my comments expressed sorrow that thousands of Russian soldiers are dying in the war and that the civilian population of Ukraine is suffering. I also spoke about the plight of refugees from Mariupol, with whom we had to communicate and help adapt to new conditions,” the activist told the Respublikasy project. Earlier, in September 2022, Nikolskaya was fined 30,000 roubles under the administrative offence of ‘discrediting the army’ (part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) for a comment about Mariupol refugees, which she posted in the VKontakte community We are Pensioners!