March 12, 2021

Snowmen Acquitted!


Snowmen Acquitted!
A reason to be pleased - the snowmen have been acquitted! /Myriam Zilles on Unsplash Myriam Zilles on Unsplash

Update: the snowmen have been cleared! And we're not talking about any epic attempts to remove recent major snowfall in some Russian provinces. Rather, we're referring to a group of protesters whose case has gone cold.

At the end of January, outside of her home in Zachachye, Arkhangelsk Oblast, activist Yelena Kalinina enlisted snowmen to protest the mistreatment of Alexei Navalny.

The snowmen held signs targeting President Vladimir Putin and the massive palace Gelendzhik on the Black Sea that Navalny alleged belongs to the Russian President. The frosties also proudly proclaimed Russia as their own country and declared peace for the residents of all Russian cottages.

The police raided the protest, depriving the snowmen of their signage and, we assume, indulging their adolescent urges to smash things.

But Kalinina recently posted a letter from the police to her VKontakte page that announces the termination of the investigation against the unapproved protest.

The snowmen, it seems, did no wrong – and there will be no administrative case opened to investigate Kalinina, either. Now the real clearing, involving shovels and ice, can begin.

 

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