Sitting in a small courtroom flanked by her two legal professionals final month, Olesya Krivtsova was dealing with a stiff penalty for her fondness for posting on social media. Barely 20 and till this 12 months a college pupil in northern Russia, she was accused of “justifying terrorism” and “discrediting the Russian armed forces,” and was dealing with as much as a decade in jail.

Her obvious crime? An Instagram submit asking why Ukrainians had rejoiced when the primary bridge to Russian-occupied Crimea was attacked in October.

The submit ultimately landed Ms. Krivtsova on the Kremlin’s official record of terrorists and extremists. She was positioned below home arrest and forbidden from utilizing the telephone or the web.

Ms. Krivtsova didn’t await a courtroom verdict: Final week, she fled the nation.

“I made a decision to go away as a result of I used to be determined,” Ms. Krivtsova stated by phone on Friday from Vilnius, Lithuania. “It’s not possible to show something to the Russian court docket.”

Because the Kremlin intensifies its crackdown on free speech, social media platforms have grow to be a extra frequent goal for punishment. The federal government is more and more penalizing individuals for posts it considers crucial of the combating in Ukraine — with fines, imprisonment and, in excessive instances, quickly shedding custody of their kids.

Within the Ryazan area south of Moscow, as an example, investigators opened a prison case in opposition to a person who posted a joke in regards to the Russian retreat from Kherson, in southern Ukraine. A pupil who ran an antiwar channel on the messaging app Telegram was denounced by the rector of his college for posts that criticized the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in addition to alleged Russian atrocities in Bucha and Mariupol. This month, he was sentenced to eight and a half years in a penal colony.

The crackdown on social media comes as Russia additionally strikes in opposition to activists, rights teams and information media retailers that specific or report on antiwar sentiment, a part of what critics say is a chilling effort to remove viewpoints that diverge from the Kremlin’s propaganda. President Vladimir V. Putin took the chance to burnish the state’s messaging this week as he appeared with China’s prime chief, Xi Jinping, in Moscow.

“That is the logic of intimidation,” stated Sergei Smirnov, the editor in chief of the Russian information outlet Mediazona, which experiences on the nation’s prison justice system. “We’re coping with a police state that believes that we should always merely punish extra severely in order that there are fewer and fewer individuals who specific their opinion overtly.”

Ms. Krivtsova’s case had resonated amongst rights activists and opponents of the warfare in Ukraine — as a logo of bravery for bizarre Russians, but additionally as a cautionary story for anybody who would dare observe in her footsteps. Her posts — on a non-public Instagram story obtainable solely to pals — had been reported to officers by her fellow college students at Northern (Arctic) Federal College, a few of whom she knew personally.

“I perceive if an individual refuses to talk out for his security, as a result of the implications are severe not just for the individual, however for the entire household, for all their family members,” she informed journalists earlier than a current court docket listening to. “The whole lot that I’m going by proper now’s horrible.”

This week, the Russian authorities added her to the federal needed record, and a court docket dominated that she be arrested in absentia, based on Russian information media.

Virtually 6,000 Russians have been accused of discrediting the Russian Military for the reason that invasion, based on OVD-Information, a rights group that tracks political repression. Of these, greater than 2,000 instances are associated to feedback posted on social media, the group stated.

Russia treats the primary cost as an administrative offense, which normally comes with a positive or some jail time. However a repeat offense — which might even contain a social media submit from years prior to now — carries prison legal responsibility and a possible sentence of 10 years.

There are 447 defendants dealing with prison costs for antiwar exercise in Russia, based on OVD-Information. Most are charged with “disseminating false info,” however Ms. Krivtsova and a number of other dozen others are charged with “justifying, selling and inciting terrorism.”

Ms. Krivtsova stated she realized that her possibilities of being exonerated had been tremendously diminished after practice tickets had been bought in her identify. She denied shopping for the tickets and stated she believed the safety companies had carried out so to indicate that she would try an escape. The prosecution was unable to offer any proof exhibiting that she had purchased them.

Ms. Krivtsova stated she believed that issues in Russia would proceed to deteriorate for a while.

“Once I dedicated this crime,” she stated, referring to the cost of discrediting the army, “the sentence was for 3 years, now it’s 5. And I do know that issues will worsen, that there shall be prison legal responsibility not even for public expressions however for personal beliefs. The whole lot is constructing towards that.”

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the state has positioned even tighter limits on free speech, banning web sites and social media platforms and making it a criminal offense to share details about the warfare that didn’t come from a state supply. Although Fb and Instagram are banned in Russia, individuals nonetheless use them by workarounds, together with Telegram and VKontakte.

The lengthy arms of the bureaucratic state are imposing the brand new insurance policies — however they’ve assist from bizarre people who find themselves serving as its eyes and ears. Ms. Krivtsova stated she was unaware {that a} group of scholars at her college had shaped their very own group chat to debate the posts of scholars who oppose the warfare with a view towards denouncing them.

Shortly after Mr. Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ms. Krivtsova posted feedback on social media condemning the warfare. On Might 9, the day Russia commemorates its contributions to defeating Nazi Germany in World Struggle II, Ms. Krivtsova took her exercise a step additional: She printed and distributed leaflets round Arkhangelsk, a regional capital on the White Sea, declaring that there are World Struggle II veterans nonetheless residing in Ukraine, a few of whom had died below Russian shelling. She known as for an finish to the warfare.

The following day, officers from the Heart for Combating Extremism compelled her to “apologize to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on digital camera,” she stated. In addition they extracted a written confession and charged her with “discrediting” the armed forces.

Ms. Krivtsova continued to precise her opinions on-line, one thing that had been tolerated earlier than the invasion.

In October, after the Ukrainian assault on the bridge to Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, Ms. Krivtsova wrote a submit through which she sought to grasp the supply of many Ukrainians’ glee over the episode, which Moscow considers an act of terrorism. A screenshot appeared in her classmates’ chat group — with the remark that it was certainly unlawful.

“Denunciation is the responsibility of a patriot,” one of many college students wrote, based on screenshots of the dialogue seen by The New York Occasions.

One buddy within the group noticed the chat and warned her. However she didn’t assume her classmates would actually undergo with it.

The pinnacle of her division lauded the scholars who denounced her.

“Society is a social organism, and it will probably get sick,” stated Artyom V. Makulin, the top of the humanities program. “Each society has an immune system.”

He stated he believed college students like her had been below the affect of “ideological hypnosis.”

Ms. Krivtsova stated she had by no means met Mr. Makulin personally, however she stated that didn’t cease him from writing a damaging character reference about her for her court docket look.

On campus, a overwhelming majority of scholars approached by a Occasions journalist stated they didn’t learn about Ms. Krivtsova’s case. Those that did stated they’d not focus on the subject of the warfare on-line and even amongst their pals and classmates.

One freshman historical past pupil, Aleksandr, who didn’t give his surname for safety causes, stated it was “past scary” to check in an setting the place college students might condemn you to years in jail.

In Vilnius, Ms. Krivtsova has rather a lot on her to-do record: discovering an condominium, a job and a brand new set of garments, as a result of she left in disguise carrying a “horrible, shabby masculine jacket.” She stated she had come to phrases with the truth that she would in all probability by no means see her grandmother once more.

However she lastly has one factor she couldn’t have in Russia. In a video she posted after her escape, she confirmed herself slicing off the ankle bracelet she had worn throughout home arrest. A tattoo of a spider with Mr. Putin’s face that claims “Massive brother is watching” was seen on her different leg.

She held up a drawing of a damaged set of handcuffs accompanied by one phrase: “Freedom.”