Activists Face Fines for Highlighting Putins Dissent Against Stalin in Moscow Metro

Two activists in Russia were each fined 20,000 rubles (approximately $250) for displaying framed quotes from President Vladimir Putin and Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev that criticized Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. This occurred at a newly unveiled relief sculpture in the Moscow Metro.

Sofya Bezmenova and Timofey Rostopchin, members of the right-wing group Society.Future, were apprehended last week after they affixed the quotes at the base of the Stalin relief.

One quote attributed to Putin reads: «All the progress was achieved at an unacceptable cost. Attaining results through repression is intolerable. During Stalin’s administration, there wasn’t just a cult of personality — mass crimes against the populace were also committed.»

As reported by the exiled news outlet Meduza, these comments were made by the Kremlin leader during his annual Direct Line event in 2009.

Following the quote from Putin, the frame poses the question: «Does the Moscow Transportation Department concur with Vladimir Putin/Dmitry Medvedev?»

The Tverskoy District Court in Moscow found Bezmenova and Rostopchin in violation of protest laws and imposed the maximum penalty for their administrative infraction. Bezmenova expressed that while she anticipated being fined, she was still «angry.»

«The public discourse surrounding a tyrant should not be suppressed using methods reminiscent of the Stalin era,» the Society.Future movement declared in a statement on Friday. «We denounce the stifling of public dialogue and demand that all individuals participating in public actions can do so without fearing a return to the repression of 1937.»

Their attorney, Matvei Tzen, announced that both fines would be contested in court.

Despite the extensive purges and the estimated millions who died under Stalin’s rule, his image has been increasingly restored in public spaces across Russia. Independent media sources suggest that a significant majority of the 120 existing Stalin monuments in the country were erected during Putin’s 25 years in power.

Earlier this month, the Moscow Metro debuted a replica of the Stalin relief sculpture at Taganskaya Station. The original sculpture was installed in 1950 but was taken down during the Soviet Union’s de-Stalinization efforts in the 1960s.