St. Petersburg court fines Russian activist residing in Finland for organising rally

A St. Petersburg court has slapped a fine of 20,000 rubles (330 euros) on Russian activist Petr Trofimov, a Finnish resident since 2019, for organizing an unauthorized rally, the Pervy Otdel legal group reports.

The fine comes after Trofimov shared details about an anti-war protest on 27 February on his VK, Russian social media platform, profile. However, nobody joined the protest in St. Petersburg.

The ball got rolling on the case earlier this week. Trofimov said that he currently resides in Finland’s Turku and “did not organise any rallies in Russia even though I would like to.”

Before moving to Finland, Pyotr participated in many protests in St. Petersburg. After the war broke out, the activist has been speaking out in support of Ukraine and staging rallies in Finland with his colleagues.