Museum Director Sentenced to Russian Jail Over Composite Photo of Putin and Hitler
A museum director has been sentenced to 10 years in a Russian prison over a poster featuring a composite photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler merged into one face.
Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova, the director of the Narva Museum, Estonia, was sentenced by a Moscow Court to 10 years in prison in absentia on charges of spreading “war fakes” and “rehabilitating Nazism,” according to reports.
The jail sentence followed an incident on May 9, Russia’s Victory Day, when Smorževskihh-Smirnova displayed a large banner on the wall of Narva Museum, which featured a composite image of Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler merged into a single face.
The composite photo was mounted on the wall of Hermann Castle, facing Russia and visible from across the Narva River. The portrait carried the caption: “Putler War Criminal!”
Narva, Estonia’s third-largest city, sits directly across the river from Russia’s Ivangorod. The two cities are linked by a fortified bridge. Russia has long claimed Narva as part of its historic territory, and analysts have suggested it could be a potential point for a future Russian incursion into Estonia.
After Smorževskihh-Smirnova displayed the photograph, the museum director was charged by Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s equivalent of the FBI, and added to an international wanted list.
“Today I found out from Estonian journalists that a Russian court has sentenced me – a citizen of the Republic of Estonia and the European Union — to 10 years in prison for my civic stance,” Smorževskihh-Smirnova tells ERR News, after learning of the sentencing. “I have not committed a single illegal act in my life. How my actions are interpreted by the totalitarian regime of a neighboring country is their internal matter.
“I see what has happened as yet another, rather banal and long-since unoriginal attempt to intimidate me personally, and also others – those who dare to call things by their proper names.”
The Narva Museum team tells ERR News that it fully supports its director and considers the Moscow court ruling a political attempt at intimidation.
The news comes after a photographer was sentenced to sixteen years in a Russian prison for sharing a publicly available book and declassified archival photographs of Soviet bunkers. Meanwhile, two women were arrested in Russia for filming a selfie video in front of a Ukrainian drone strike in the country.
Image credits: Header photo via Facebook/ Narva Museum.
