ST. PETERSBURG -- An artist in Russia's second-largest city who was arrested for using price tags in a city store to distribute information about Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has been forcibly committed to a psychiatric clinic for examination, a move that echoes a Soviet-era practice to silence dissidents.
Aleksandra Skochilenko's lawyer, Yana Nepovinnova, said on June 9 that officials noted the examination may take up to three weeks.
Skochilenko's mother, Nadezhda, said the officer investigating her daughter's case insisted on sending her to a psychiatric clinic even though psychiatrists had said that the examination could be conducted inside the detention center.
Amnesty International has called the current-day usage of psychiatric clinics in cases against dissidents "a punitive measure" that was "well tried and tested during the Soviet period" to pressure those in detention.
Skochilenko is accused of replacing price tags in a supermarket on March 31 with pieces of paper containing "knowingly false information about the use of the Russian armed forces."
Skochilenko has said her actions were not about the army but instead an attempt to propagate peace.
In early March, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that allows for lengthy prison terms for distributing "deliberately false information" about Russian military operations as the Kremlin seeks to control the narrative about its war in Ukraine.
The law envisages sentences of up to 10 years in prison for individuals convicted of an offense, while the penalty for the distribution of "deliberately false information" about the Russian military that leads to "serious consequences" is 15 years in prison.
It also makes it illegal "to make calls against the use of Russian troops to protect the interests of Russia" or "for discrediting such use" with a penalty possible of up to three years in prison. The same provision applies to calls for sanctions against Russia.