The Investigative Committee has completed its investigation into the case of anti-war posters being displayed on Narva Castle in Estonia.

The Investigative Committee has completed its investigation into Maria Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova, director of the Narva Museum in Estonia, over anti-war and anti-Putin posters. This was reported by TASS, citing the Investigative Committee.

Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova is accused under articles concerning the dissemination of “fake news” about the Russian army (Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) and the rehabilitation of Nazism (Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code). She is not in Russia.

The Investigative Committee’s representative told TASS: “The investigation has established that in 2023, 2024, and 2025, during the Victory Day celebrations of the Great Patriotic War, she organised, provided access for, and assisted in displaying posters on one of the walls of Narva Castle, featuring images of the President of the Russian Federation and captions containing false information about him committing war crimes.”

The criminal case against Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova was opened no later than summer 2024. In January 2025, it became known that a court in Moscow had ordered the head of the Narva Museum to be arrested in absentia.

• The Narva Museum is located in an Estonian castle on the banks of the Narva River; directly across on the Russian side stands the Ivangorod Fortress. On 9 May 2023 and 2024, a poster was hung on the castle walls depicting Vladimir Putin spattered with blood and an English inscription: “Putin is a war criminal.” The poster was visible from Ivangorod, on the Russian side. In 2025, the castle displayed a poster comparing Putin to Hitler.