Video of girl removing Putin portrait from classroom goes viral

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Video of a Russian student removing a portrait of President Vladimir Putin from her classroom wall has gone viral – a day before planned protests against the jailing of poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, according to a report.

Alina Morozova, a student from Yaroslavl believed to be 16, was ordered to a police station with her father to explain her act of defiance, East2West News reported.

Videos of schoolchildren replacing portraits of Putin in their classrooms with that of Navalny have been going viral on TikTok.

The teen has apparently not broken any law by removing the strongman’s photograph so, at least for now, faces no punishment, according to the news outlet.

“The arrest of Alexei Navalny caused great resonance not only among young people, but also among the adults,” Alina, who posted video of her act on TikTok, told Open Media.

“On TikTok, this resonance is impossible not to notice — everything screams about it, even jokes about it appear,” she said. “I didn’t think at all that the video would get two million views outright.”

The girl added that her teacher and the school director have confronted her about her actions.

“They all had different opinions about my act, and they have the right to do so, the teen said.

But, the portrait of the president, according to the law, is not a state symbol, she said, explaining why it is not illegal to remove it.

“With my video, I expressed my civic position to which everyone at school has the right,” Alina said.

But her teachers eventually reported her to police, Alina added, saying they had a “preventive conversation” with her about the incident.

Russia’s Education Ministry has issued a statement urging parents to “shield” their children from events planned Saturday, saying that “no one has the right to drag young people into various political actions and provocations.”

Meanwhile, police in Moscow on Thursday evening detained three top associates of Navalny.

On Friday, the jailed dissident’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh was ordered to spend nine days behind bars, while Georgy Alburov was jailed for 10 days.

Navalny’s close ally Lyubov Sobol was released late Thursday but ordered by a court to pay a fine equivalent to $3,300. All three have been charged with violating protest regulations.

More than a dozen activists and Navalny allies in several Russian regions also have been detained.

With protests planned by his supporters on Saturday, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s office and police have issued public warnings against attending or calling for unauthorized rallies.

The prosecutors also demanded Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media and internet watchdog, to restrict access to websites containing calls to protest.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that “it is only natural that there are warnings … about the possible consequences related to noncompliance with the law” since there are calls for “unauthorized, unlawful events.”

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged residents not to attend a rally, citing coronavirus concerns and called the demonstration “unlawful.”

Navalny was arrested Sunday when he returned to Russia from Germany, where he had spent nearly five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

On Monday, a judge ordered he jailed for 30 days in connection with alleged violations of a suspended prison sentence in an embezzlement case he insists was trumped up.

With Post wires

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