She is charged with spreading “fake news” about the Russian army.

The Basmanny District Court in Moscow has arrested in absentia Maria Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova, director of the Narva Museum in Estonia, following a conviction in mid-January for spreading “fake news” about the Russian army and its campaign in Ukraine.

The specifics of the charges remain unknown. Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova has been listed in the Russian Interior Ministry's database of wanted individuals since the summer of 2024, with no details about the reasons being published, according to MediaZona.

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The Narva Museum is located in a medieval castle in the Estonian city of Narva, on the border with Russia.

For the past two years, it displays a banner reading "Putin is a war criminal" with bloodstains on the castle walls, visible from the Russian side in Ivangorod, across the river. Russian border guards demanded the banner be removed, but Estonian authorities refused.

The banner was Estonia's response to a propaganda campaign by Russia, which broadcast a Victory Day concert in May 2023 on a giant screen directed at Narva residents, with the disturbingly loud sound carrying for many kilometers into Estonia.

Many residents in the Estonian city are Russian citizens and sympathizers to the regime of Vladimir Putin.

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