The couple was initially detained on Wednesday, according to human rights group OVD-info. After searching their apartment and finding sketches of anti-war messages, the Russian authorities took the couple to the Federal Security Service for interrogation, OVD said.
Dyudyaeva, who describes herself as the “darkest artist of the Northwest” of Russia, has previously had her art presented in anti-war exhibitions. In May 2023, Dyudaeva and her husband also hosted a private display in their apartment that was raided by the police, according to reports.
In an interview with Novaya Gazeta in July 2022, Dyudyaeva said she was not really interested in politics until 2014. “Putin made me such an artist,” she said.
A similar incident occurred in St. Petersburg in November. The artist Sasha Skochilenko was sentenced to seven years in a penal colony for swapping pricing labels at a supermarket with anti-war messages — which was deemed by the court as spreading “known untruths” about the Russian army.