The Investigative Committee has initiated a case on military “fakes” against an anti-war activist who has moved to Germany.

The Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against 22-year-old activist Alina Shumskikh for spreading ‘fake news’ about the Russian army motivated by hatred (paragraph “d,” part 2, article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code). This follows from the register of cases on the website of the Perovsky District Court in Moscow, which was highlighted by the publication “Ostorozhno, novosti.”

On 15 September, the court received a motion from an investigator seeking to place Shumskikh in custody.

In May, the Savyolovsky District Court in Moscow fined the activist 10,000 rubles (approx. US$110) under the article on participating in the activities of an “undesirable organisation” (article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offences) after she appeared in a video from the German group Freies Russland NRW (“Free Russia North Rhine-Westphalia”). In the video, Shumskikh was listed as a participant in the organisation. She said she had attended an anti-war rally in Düsseldorf to “say no to the bloody war started by Putin.”

“Ostorozhno, novosti,” without naming its source, reports that the criminal case was opened because of this video.

On her social media accounts, Shumskikh repeatedly posted photos and videos from anti-war and anti-Putin rallies in Europe. At one such event, she gave a speech and said that she had become interested in politics back in school because of the activities of Alexei Navalny. She also took part in protests in Russia, and in 2022 left for Germany to study.

This story has been updated to correct the location of the anti-war rally where Shumskikh gave her comments to Freies Russland NRW.