Replaced price tags with anti-war messages • “Feels like it’s not real”
She exchanged price tags for anti-war messages at a grocery store – and was sentenced to prison.
This week, the artist Sasja Skotjilenko was finally released in the prisoner exchange between the USA, Germany and Russia.
– I am so grateful, says Skotjilenko.
It was in November that the Russian activist and artist Sasha Skotjilenko was sentenced to seven years in prison under the Russian law on “deliberate dissemination of false information about the armed forces of Russia”.
Some time before that, Skotjilenko had exchanged price tags for other tags with anti-war messages, and had been caught by a trader who reported her.
On the notes, she informed about the Russian actions in Ukraine and about what the war cost the country financially.
“A huge effort”
On Thursday, she was included in the major prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States, in which Russia, along with Belarus, released 16 prisoners in exchange for spies held in American prisons.
– It feels like it’s not real, like I’m going to wake up in my cell, Skotjilenko said.
On Friday, she met her girlfriend again when they met in Germany.
– This is the result of a huge effort from so many people. I am so grateful, said Skotjilenko.
Convicted of murder
The 16 prisoners extradited by Russia originally come from the United States, Germany and Russia.
They were imprisoned on political grounds and among those now free are journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, and former marine Paul Whelan.
Russia returned eight prisoners including two children of two of the prisoners.
One of them – FSB agent Vadim Krasikov – was sentenced in 2021 in Germany for murdering a girl in a park on orders from the Russian security service.