Irina Tsipaneva, 60, left a note on the grave of Putin’s parents saying they raised a “monster and a murderer”.
A 60-year-old Russian pensioner has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of desecrating the grave of President Vladimir Putin’s parents when she left a note at the burial site saying that she “raised a monster and a murderer”.
On Thursday, the court found Irina Tsipaneva of St. Petersburg guilty of desecrating Putin’s burial place out of political hatred.
The pensioner said she was motivated by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Prosecutors had sought a suspended three-year prison sentence for Tsipaneva, who was accused in October of desecrating the Putin family plot in St Petersburg with a remark referring to the dead Putin’s mother and father as “the parents of this madness,” independent news websites reported.
“Death to Putin, I raised a monster and a murderer,” the note said, urging the deceased parents to “take him with you, he causes so much pain and trouble,” according to Novaya Gazeta Europe.
“The whole world is praying for him to die,” the note said.
Tsipaneva’s lawyer said she did not plead guilty because she did not physically desecrate the grave or seek publicity for her act.
The pensioner – who was initially placed under house arrest, denied access to the Internet and banned from visiting the Seraphimovsky Cemetery in St Petersburg – does not plan to appeal the verdict.
Tsipaneva told the court that she wrote the note after seeing news of the war in Ukraine, the media reported.
The woman was found guilty of cemetery desecration motivated by political hatred. Tsybaneva is also being placed on a two-year probationary period.https://t.co/pNp7nrGTVE
– Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) May 11, 2023
“After watching the news, fear overwhelmed me, I felt very unwell,” Tsipaneva told the court, according to Novaya Gazeta.
“The fear was so strong that I couldn’t handle it, and maybe it’s my fault. I can hardly remember writing it.” [the note]I have no recollection of the text itself. I realize that I gave in to my feelings and committed an irrational act. I am sorry that my actions could offend or affect someone.
The news organization added that Tsipaneva also said she was sure her remark would not be noticed because “it was wrapped in a small tube and did not attract any attention.”
Also on Thursday, Nikita Toshkanov, a history teacher from Komi in northeastern Russia, was sentenced by a Russian military court to five-and-a-half years in prison for comments he made about last year’s explosion on the Kerch Bridge linking Ukraine’s Crimea to mainland Russia.
Toshkanov was found guilty of justifying “terrorism” and “defaming” the Russian military for a post on social media in October that described the bridge explosion as a “Christmas gift” for Putin.
The Kremlin has unleashed a sweeping crackdown aimed at criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has seen critics, in addition to being fined and jailed, fired from their jobs, blacklisted and labeled “foreign agents” by the authorities in Russia.