A Russian artist is facing eight years in prison for a protest that saw her swap supermarket price tags with notes urging the Kremlin to stop the war in Ukraine.
State prosecutors in St Petersburg on Wednesday asked a judge to jail Alexandra Skochilenko for eight years for the stunt, carried out on March 31 last year.
The 33-year-old artist, musician and activist, who goes by the name Sasha, reportedly replaced price tags with pieces of paper calling for an end to the conflict.
The pieces of paper are said to have contained information about civilians reportedly killed in Russian shelling - something Moscow denied at the time.Skochilenko was detained in April 2022 after a shopper complained about her action.
She has gone on trial charged with spreading fake information about the Russian army, which is punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
The artist was pictured smiling from a courtroom cage, as she appeared at a hearing in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday.
She denies her guilt and said her protest was purely a peaceful one.
