Volokh Being Prosecuted for Anti-Government Speech

That's Maria Volokh, a municipal government candidate in Moscow (not the one in Idaho), being prosecuted for speech critical of the war in Ukraine (see Mediazona, in Russian). Volokh's and her codefendant Sergey Smirnov's speech apparently consisted of walking through the center of Moscow with black tape over their mouths and carrying posters with "*** *****," which seems to be a symbol for the expurgated eight-letter phrase "нет войне" ("no to war").

I would have been proud to call Ms. Volokh a kinswoman, but she and I are not, to my knowledge, related.

#Elections getting closer❗️
Maria Volokh and Sergei Smirnov, candidates for municipal deputies in the Tverskoi district of #Moscow, were charged with "discrediting" the #army and violating the rules for holding public events. https://t.co/m9IfG9sg7o pic.twitter.com/lCipPULf3J

— Russian Election Monitor (@russian_monitor) August 11, 2022