Yelena Osipova, an artist based in St. Petersburg and voicing the famous protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has next his anti-war picket shortly after suffering a stroke.
Osipova, 77, is one fittings at an anti-war rally in the city of St. Russia’s second St. Petersburg after the outbreak of war, with footage of his frequent arrests by police going viral.
On Monday, as the country marked the Russia Day national holiday, Osipova was photographed on St. Petersburg’s main artery. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect.
“Russia needs rehabilitation after a serious illness,” read the caption on a banner stuck to the fence beside Osipova.
MR7, St. Petersburg on the messaging app Telegram, said Osipova was not being held in a short picket.
It was the first time Osipova had stepped outside her home since being discharged from hospital two weeks ago, where she was treated in early May for a stroke. according to to the veteran opposition politician St. Petersburg Boris Vishnevsky.
“We are very worried about him,” wrote Vishnevsky, a longtime Kremlin critic and member of Yabloko’s liberal party.
He added that police confiscated a painting of Osipova exhibited in Yabloko’s office in January and had not returned it despite promising to return it in early May.
While one-man pickets are one of the few remaining legal forms of protest in Russia, carrying anti-war slogans runs the risk of prosecution under Russia’s wartime censorship laws.
