Russian baker fined for anti-war cakes

Anastasia Chernysheva

A Russian baker fined for «discrediting» the Moscow military after baking anti-war cakes.

Anastasia Chernysheva started posting photos of cakes adorned with the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag on her Instagram account two months after the Russian invasion.

One phallic-shaped cake was adorned with the phrase «F—to war.»

She was released after she was charged with “ discrediting» the Russian armed forces, a crime initiated by the Kremlin after the invasion of Ukraine to suppress public resistance to the war.

On Friday, she was ordered to pay a fine of 35,000 rubles (£345) after being found guilty by Moscow's Izmailovsky District Court.

> Anastasia Chernysheva began sharing photos of cakes decorated with the yellow and blue colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Ms Chernysheva said she would not contest the fine and that the allegations came as no surprise.

“I had several waves of pro-Russian comments about my place in prison. At first I laughed it off … But at some point I thought that, indeed, they would come for me because of the cakes, and then I would act according to the circumstances. And so they came,” she told Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Criminal prosecution and prison time are on the table if she is charged a second time.

Some of her cakes has already. were auctioned off to charity, including donations to Yevgeny Roizman, an opposition politician.

Her case is the latest in a string of punitive measures taken against Russia's war opponents.

Earlier a month, ardent Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 23 years in prison on charges including treason for critical comments he made regarding the Russian invasion.

The former Russian-British journalist and politician was arrested in April 2022. , just hours after an interview with CNN in which he said Russia was ruled by a «murder regime».