The paintings by the artist Elena Osipova, confiscated by the police from the exhibition in the St. Petersburg office of the Yabloko party, were sent for a comprehensive psychological and linguistic examination as part of an inspection under the criminal article on “fakes” about the Russian army (part 1 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code), the prosecutor’s office of St. Petersburg said.
As stated in the department’s response to a request from Yabloko, the police considered that Osipova’s paintings contained “text inscriptions that probably contain false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”
It is expected that the examination will be carried out until August 2023, but which agency conducts the pre-investigation check remains unclear, the party noted.
The exhibition “Peaceful Art Protest” of paintings by 77-year-old artist and active participant in project actions Elena Osipova opened in the St. Petersburg office of Yabloko on January 31. The next day, the police came to the exhibition, claiming to have received a message about a bomb in the building. Information about mining was not confirmed, but police officers seized 19 paintings by Osipova from the exhibition.
Subsequently, the Interior Ministry refused to representatives of Yabloko to open a criminal case on the fact of false mining. The party called the mining “a staging, the purpose of which was to disrupt the exhibition and confiscate the works of Elena Osipova.”
