The head of the Narva Museum was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison over a banner reading: “Putin is a war criminal.”

The Moscow City Court has sentenced Maria Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova, the director of the Narva Museum, in absentia to ten years in a general regime prison on charges of spreading “false information” about the Russian army (points “b” and “d” of part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and “rehabilitating Nazism” (part 4, article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by Mediazona.

The court also banned her from administering websites for five years.

The prosecution had requested a 12-year sentence.

Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova was declared wanted in Russia in the summer of 2024, and in January 2025 was arrested in absentia.

According to the investigation, during the Victory Day celebrations in Russia in 2023–2025, she “organised, provided access to, and assisted in posting on one of the walls of Narva Castle posters featuring the Russian president and inscriptions containing false information about his commission of war crimes.”

The Narva Museum is situated on the banks of the Narva River, which forms the border between Estonia and Russia. From 2023 to 2025, on 9 May, a banner was displayed on the wall of the medieval castle housing the museum, bearing in English the inscription “Putin is a war criminal” and a portrait of Vladimir Putin stained with blood. The banner was visible from Russian territory.

“This is not a provocation, but an installation planned in advance by the museum and the organisation Propastop, which will remain up for several days. It unambiguously reminds us that the border runs right here in Narva. <…> We must remember that a full-scale war, launched by Putin, is taking place next to us. We considered it necessary to display this installation and to remind people that everything comes at a price,” Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova said in 2023.

At the time, Russian border guards demanded the banner be removed, but the Estonian authorities refused.

The museum began displaying the banner with Putin after the Russian authorities installed a stage with a screen on the Narva embankment for a Victory Day concert. The event featured the singer Shaman, and performers sang Russian patriotic songs. The stage was oriented towards Estonia.