‘I’ve dreamed of an avocado for two years,’ says the activist serving the longest sentence in Russia’s case against a banned youth movement

In April, a court in St. Petersburg handed down its verdict in the Vesna case. Vesna is a youth opposition movement that, in 2022, became one of the organizers of Russian protests against the war and mobilization. Six defendants received sentences ranging from six to 12 years. The longest sentence went to 28-year-old Anna Arkhipova of Novosibirsk, even though she had left Vesna before Russia designated the movement “extremist.”