Meet the 76-year-old Russian anti-war protester who’s not backing down

Yelena Osipova has been protesting against injustices in Russia since 2002. Image Courtesy: Sergey Chernov

Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine, a video of an elderly activist being rounded up by policemen in riot gear went viral. A month on, Yelena Osipova continues to be unfazed. The 76-year-old has become the face of anti-war protests in Russia, where punishment for dissent can earn penalties up to 15 years in prison.

In a country, where a majority of the older population are backers of the Kremlin, Osipova remains an exception. She’s a regular at protests against the invasion of Ukraine; videos of her frequent detentions continue to circulate on social media.

Who is Yelena Osipova and how is she such a rebel?

Osipova was born toward the end of World War II in Leningrad (present-day St Petersburg), the city reduced to rubble by a barbaric 900-day Nazi blockage. In her growing up days, she saw the heartbreaking fallout of war. She knows it only brings death and devastation and hence chooses not be a bystander.

Protesting since 2002

In St Petersburg, Gostiny Dvor, a popular shopping centre, has become the go-to protest site. It been heavily guarded by police since the protests erupted last month.

But Osipova likes to do things her own way. At the Chernyshevskaya metro station, she stands alone on a Sunday, dressed in a bulky winter coat, two protest signs in hand, reports The Moscow Times. She doesn’t need company; the septuagenarian is a veteran protester, if we may call her so.

An artist by profession, Osipova has been raising her voice against injustice in the country for two decades now. She attended her first protest in 2002, after the Nord Ost siege, popularly known as the Moscow theatre hostage crisis. Forty to 50 armed Chechen terrorists held 850 hostage and it led to the deaths of at least 170 people.

The tragedy moved her and “since then I have not been silent,” Osipova tells The Moscow Times.

Two years later, she found herself back on the streets. This time, demonstrating against the Beslan school hostage, which led to the deaths of hundreds of school-goers.

She has continued to speak to truth to power. Be it calling for the release of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s critic Alexei Navalny or participating in the 2014 demonstrations against the Crimea crisis.

Now, once again, Russia has trained its eyes on Ukraine, and Osipova is up in arms against the Kremlin. She’s using her art as a tool of protest.

One of her anti-war placards reads, “Putin is war. We don’t want to die for Putin”; another depicts him as the devil, reports BBC.

She was so upset after the invasion that she went without food for three days, she says. Then she decided to take to the streets.

Osipova says she receives some support from passers-by, who see her standing at the station.

“Thank you so much for taking a stand here. It takes so much courage,” one woman tells her, according to The Moscow Times report.

“Thank you…” she replies. “I nearly died when I heard that 70 per cent of Russians support all this. See, it’s very scary.”

Detentions and fines

It’ll be a few days, before Osipova is detained and fined again. As a pensioner, the money is a lot to shell out. But it’s all part of the routine.

“I must have seen the inside of every police precinct in the city over all these years,” she says. About the fines, she adds her pension is small and she can’t pay them all up.

The authorities have now started withholding her pension, according to The Moscow Times. That’s her punishment.

Osipova is not sure how long she can carry on. Age is catching up; plus, she has a second-degree disability.

She might slow down, but her popularity is only growing, as her protests have caught global attention. Some call her the “Conscience of St Petersburg”. It’s not a moniker she has taken to.

“I don’t like it at all. Because people with no conscience are often using conscience as a shield, you see,” she says matter-of-factly.

With inputs from agencies

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