Press Release, 17.03.2023

Photo: Yelena Osipova at the opening of her exhibition in the St. Petersburg Yabloko on 31 January, 2023 / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

The paintings by the artist Yelena Osipova, which the police seized from the office of the St.Petersburg branch of Yabloko, have, according to the police, “text inscriptions possibly containing false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation”. In view of this, the police conducts a check “on the signs of crime envisaged in Article 207.3, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”. This follows from the response of the St.Petersburg Public Prosecutor’s Office to the appeal of Alexander Shishlov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.

The response of the supervisory authority also states that a comprehensive psychological and linguistic examination has been appointed for the seized graphic images. It is expected to end in August 2023. At the same time, it remains unclear which department is currently conducting a pre-investigation check on this fact, and the appeals of Yabloko party representatives for the return of the seized paintings have remained unanswered.

It should be noted that on 1 February, police officers came to the Yabloko office, cordoned off the premises and said that they had received a call about an alleged bomb threat. Police officers did not find any explosive objects in the office, but they seized 19 Yelena Osipova’s artworks, which she provided to Yabloko for an exhibition PEACEful Art-Protest which opened on 31 January. The Yabloko office was blocked for five hours, police did not allow Yabloko activists to return to their working places and prepare documents for the candidates nominated by Yabloko in the by-elections of municipal deputies for submission to the electoral commissions.

The investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central District of St.Petersburg refused to initiate a criminal case on the fact of a false report about the mining of the Yabloko office, explaining this by the fact that the investigator failed to find the telephone “terrorist”. However, on the complaint of Andrei Chertkov, a lawyer representing the party, this decision was canceled by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Central District, the material was returned for an additional check, the results of which are still unknown.

Yabloko believes that the notorious message about the “mining” was essentially a staging, the purpose of which was to disrupt the exhibition and confiscate the works by Yelena Osipova.

“Unfortunately, the police, which was drawn into a provocation organised by someone with the seizure of Yelena Osipova’s paintings from the office of the St.Petersburg Yabloko, goes on undertaking attempts to save the face, threatening with a criminal case, rather than recognising committed violations and returning the paintings,” Alexander Shishlov said.