Aleksandra Skochilenko

Aleksandra Yurevna Skochilenko (Russian: Александра Юрьевна Скочиленко; born 13 September 1990), also known as Sasha Skochilenko, is a Russian artist, musician and social activist.

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Yurevna and the family name is Skochilenko.

Aleksandra Skochilenko
Александра Юрьевна Скочиленко
Born
Aleksandra Yurevna Skochilenko

(1990-09-13) 13 September 1990
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
(now Saint Petersburg, Russia)
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Artist
  • musician

Biography

Skochilenko was born in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). She is an alumna of the Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Saint Petersburg State University. She is an author of the Book About Depression (2014), which helped destigmatize mental health issues in Russia. She is an open lesbian and her partner has been involved in publicizing the course of her criminal case and the conditions of her detention.[1]

Russian invasion of Ukraine

After taking part in a protest against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Skochilenko was fined 10,000 rubles.[2]

On 31 March, Skochilenko was arrested for “putting fragments of paper in place of price tags, containing information about the use of the Russian armed forces” in a Perekrestok supermarket.[2] The messages attributed to her included information about Mariupol theatre airstrike on 16 March: “The Russian army bombed an art school in Mariupol where about 400 people were hiding from the shelling.”[3] Skochilenko was jailed for eight weeks pending trial, accused of being motivated by "political hatred for Russia". Under the recently introduced Russian fake news laws, she faces a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment if found guilty.[2] In a letter from her jail in April 2022, Skochilenko wrote: "It just so happened that I represent everything that the Putin regime is so intolerant of: creativity, pacifism, LGBT, psycho-enlightenment, feminism, humanism, and love for everything bright, ambiguous, unusual."[1] On 30 May, the St. Petersburg District Court extended her pre-trial detention until July in a closed hearing.[4] In early June, she was temporarily transferred to a psychiatric hospital, where staff refused to treat her for abdomen pain she was experiencing and refused to share information about her condition with her lawyer and partner. On 30 June, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs's Centre for Combating Extremism issued a report alleging that Skochilenko was a member of the Eighth Initiative Group, which it deemed a "radical protest feminist group”. Skochilenko denied knowledge of the group. Following those claims, the court extended her pre-trial detention until September.[5]

Illustration showing Alexandra Skochilenko being dragged away by the police

Human rights groups raised concerns about the conditions of her detention, as she suffers from congenital heart disease, PTSD, and celiac disease, the last of which requires a gluten-free diet that she has not consistently been allowed access to, and which has caused her significant weight loss and health concerns during her detention.[6] As well, her partner has been denied permission to visit her while she had been under detention.[7] In a July interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Skochilenko further raised concerns about possible mistreatment, saying that she and the other prisoners in her cell had been forced to completely clean the cell three times a day by hand and the television in the cell was restricted to war films and pro-government news about the invasion.[8]

She was honored as one of the BBC's 100 Women in 2022.[9]

Despite numerous arguments about the critical state of her health made by Skochilenko's defense at the previous hearing, on July 7, 2023 the judge ordered that she remain in pretrial detention until October 10, 2023. [10]

References
  1. "Девушка Саши Скочиленко — о жизни после ее задержания. "Бумага"". paperpaper.ru. 27 April 2022. Archived from the original on 27 April 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  2. "Russian artist faces jail over peace protest using supermarket price labels". The Guardian. 13 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  3. "Russian Artist Faces 10 Years in Prison for Protesting War on Price Tags". The Moscow Times. 12 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  4. "Hearing on extension of pre-trial detention of Aleksandra Skochilenko". Autonomous Action. 10 June 2022.
  5. "Russian Federation: Further information: Artist's pretrial detention extended again: Aleksandra Skochilenko". Amnesty International. 2 August 2022. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  6. "Дело Саши Скочиленко о ценниках. День десятый" [The Sasha Skochilenko receipt affair. Day 10]. Mediazona (in Russian). Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  7. "Russia: Artist Faces up to 10 Years for Anti-War Action". Amnesty International. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  8. "'My Country Thirsts for Blood': Russian Artist, Jailed for War 'Fakes,' Speaks Out from Custody". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 18 July 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  9. "BBC 100 Women 2022: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. 6 December 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  10. "Sasha Skochilenko Trial: 7 July 2023". The Russian Reader. 7 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
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