This 19-year-old Russian spoke critically about the war – with serious consequences The double murder – or: How the dead became prime suspects

On her right shin is an unmistakable tattoo: it shows Putin’s face attached to spider legs. Above the “human animal” is written: “Big Brother is Watching You” – a reference to George Orwell’s novel “1984”.

“Big Brother” is a fictional character in Orwell’s work who founded a totalitarian state and wielded total power over the population. The literary figure is said to be primarily based on one person: the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Attached to her left shin is a striking electronic device: an ankle bracelet.

Olesya Krivtsowa is under house arrest for discrediting the Russian army. The young woman has taken to social media to criticize the war in Ukraine – and has been arrested for the second time.

You risk up to ten years in prison.

The group chat, the hammer and the terror list

Everything would have started with an Instagram post. In October 2022, Krivtsowa was reported to have criticized the Crimean bridge explosion on social media. The connection between the Crimean peninsula and the Russian mainland is considered strategically important. The explosion has been described by the Kremlin as an “act of terrorism” that killed three people.

The student is also said to have made critical remarks about the war in a university chat. Days later, police stormed Krivtsowa’s apartment, as reported by CNN. The officers allegedly threatened the young woman with a sledgehammer. For the woman, this is an indication that the men were members of the Wagner group. Because: the sledgehammer has become an instrument of intimidation in the paramilitary organization.

In an infamous video known to the young woman, the mercenaries executed an activist with a hammer. The description of the video reads: “The traitor received the traditional Wagner punishment.”

Then Krivtsowa was taken to the police station. It was not her first confrontation with the police. The young woman was already warned in May about handing out anti-war posters.

Now the student is under house arrest in her mother’s apartment in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia – every step she takes is being followed. All means of communication are prohibited. The mother suspects that her daughter has been betrayed by a fellow student.

Krivtsowa faces up to 10 years in prison for discrediting the Russian military and justifying terrorism.

The young woman was also put on the terrorist list, which includes members of IS, Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The show trial, the mockery, and things like that

Olesya Krivtsowa was arrested on December 26. The process is still pending. Alexei Kichin, her lawyer, believes the trial will take the form of a mock trial to frighten other voices critical of the war.

But the critical voices in the Arkhangelsk region have already fallen silent. The mother of the accused daughter told CNN:

The young woman is already becoming a laughingstock on state television. Local Communist Party head Alexander Novikov publicly called Krivtsova a fool who should be sent to the front in Donbass so that she could see the military battle with her own eyes.

Her case is not the first of its kind. According to independent human rights monitor OVD-Info, at least 61 cases have been indicted in Russia on charges of justifying terrorism on the internet, and 26 cases have resulted in a conviction.