Little Peter Putin is Such a Snowflake!

A Russian woman has been interrogated by Russian police for building snowmen carrying anti-Putin slogans.  Yelena Kalinina was subjected to a police interrogation amid a nationwide  drive to suppress dissent following nationwide protests in support of jailed Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny.

Individuals close to Navalny, and those supporting his message, are being targeted by police who are trying to crush their calls for democracy, and Navalny's release.  Police detained Navalny's brother Oleg and other close allies for allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions by organizing Saturday's protests.    

Yelena's snowmen, which were built to look like a rally of protesters, hold placards reading: 'Tsar go away', 'Vova (Vladimir) it's all over between us', and 'This is our country'.

Using a line by eighteenth century German dramatist Georg Büchner, she attacked Putin's extravagant Black Sea palace in Gelendzhik, comparing it to a peasant's hovel.  The sign reads: 'Peace to the huts! War on the palaces!'  Putin has denied owning the spectacular palace, which has a pole-dancing bedroom.

 

She posted pictures of her snowmen online but credits heavy-handed police with bringing them to the attention of millions of viewers.  "The police came and made a complaint against me that the snowmen were saying the wrong things," she told reporters.  "They took the posters and sent them for forensic examination."  She said there were no local complaints in her village, Zachyachye, about the snowmen display.

Yelena was ordered to the police station for interrogation, but asserted her right to remain silent.  She was eventually released and told that officers were seeking to find a precedent that she had broken the law by building anti-Putin snowmen.  "I'm just an activist and the posts on my page were tracked by the authorities," she said.