Art becomes the best and most powerful weapon of protest against the war in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Sometimes directly, others in the most absolute and symbolic anonymity. The goal is the same: in a country that has tightened its siege against all kinds of dissent around the invasion of Ukraine, Russian artists seek to circumvent the censorship imposed on the war conflict.

At Saint PETERSBOURGthe old and proud Leningrad which withstood the Nazi siege during the Second World War, anti-war artistic expressions appear out of nowhere in every corner of the city.

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Anonymous hands leave small dolls of clay, paper or any other material with legends against war. The promoter of this artistic movement of protest, which identifies only with NT like @lesievles he calls these numbers “small picketers”.

The protests do not yet have the weight to break the official silence or dispel the fear of suffering sentences of up to 15 years in prison for those who spread fake news about the armed forces and the “special operation“Russian in Ukraine, the euphemism used by the Kremlin to designate the war. These are small, often silent cries that tend to draw attention to the droppers.

“It is very dangerous to identify. The idea of ​​the project is to lead minimalist protests. The group is growing very quickly. More than 80 picketers were put together by different collaborators,” he said in an interview via Instagram.

Who is @lesievles, the Russian artist who created an army of clay “little picketers” against the war

@lesievles defines himself as a modern artist. He is 31 years old, lives in Saint Petersburg and has no plans to leave Russia. “It’s my city and I don’t want to leave it even these days. I love my country, but not the government. They are two different things,” she said.

The conversation goes on late into the night in Russia. “We started in Saint Petersburg, but we now have picketers in Moscow and other cities of the country. I am not afraid. One day we may do it and we will be more careful because for this project you can be sentenced to 15 years in prison“, he pointed.

For the moment, the risk is less: the artists place their “piqueteros” in key places, but at a time when there is little public traffic. Then they take a photo of them and, thanks to triangulation, the image is uploaded to the www.instagram.com/malenkiy_piket/ account of this popular social network.

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In this way, they avoid the risk of being arrested, as happened during the last street demonstrations in Moscow and other cities of the country against the war, which ended in thousands of detainees, according to human rights organizations.

“When most of us can say NO, some things can change for the better,” he said.

“My heart is bleeding”: the protest of Russian artist Yevgenia Isayeva

But not all protests are anonymous. The artist Yevgenia Isayeva made a “performance” in the same city of Saint Petersburg this Sunday. The young woman stood on the steps of the municipal assembly wearing a white dress covered in red paint, she reported the BBC.

The demonstration of the artist Yevgenia Isayeva in Saint-Petersburg

Then he repeated the phrase “My heart bleeds” and again. At her feet, he put a canvas and called on passers-by not to support “bloodshed” in Ukraine. But she was immediately surrounded by several policemen and she was arrested.

One of the Pussy Riot organized a fundraiser for Ukraine and launched strong criticism against Vladimir Putin

Nadya Tolokonnikova knows what it’s like to fight censorship. As a member of the group Pussy Riot, he spent two years in a Siberian prison after organizing a protest against Putin at the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer in Moscow in 2012.

“Putin just signed a law that says you are going to be sentenced to 15 years in prison for even talking about the war in Ukraine. You can’t even call it a war, you have to call it a special military operation,” he told the British newspaper. The Guardian via Zoom from an unspecified place.

“I have panic, I cry every day. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it makes sense. It was not something that had to happen, it is a disaster that will end the lives of thousands of people. I’m going crazy“, he claimed.

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After the invasion, the artist participated in a campaign to help Ukraine and raised approximately $7 million in an auction of a Ukrainian flag non-fungible token (NFT).

“Not as much as terrorist Putin officials steal, but we are happy to have managed to raise more than seven million dollars in a few days,” he wrote on his Twitter account. The funds will be used for medical supplies and aid for Ukrainian refugees.