A store owner in St. Petersburg who was jailed last year for publicly opposing the war in Ukraine was released from prison on Friday, local media reported.
In August 2023, Dmitry Skurikhin was ordered to spend one year and six months in prison for “discrediting” the Russian military after he painted his store in pacifist slogans.
He was arrested after staging a one-man picket outside of his store in February 2023 to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The time he spent in pre-trial detention counted toward his prison sentence.
Russian authorities fined Skurikhin for “discrediting” the military’s actions in Ukraine before launching the criminal case that ultimately landed him in jail.
Videos and a photograph shared by the news outlet Bumaga on Friday showed Skurikhin in prison attire being greeted by his wife and family outside of a penal colony in St. Petersburg.
Skurikhin, who has criticized Russian military action in Ukraine since 2014, did not comment on whether he planned to continue his anti-war activism in a country that has wiped out nearly all public displays of dissent in recent years.
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