An elderly woman from Verkhny Tagil, a town in the Urals, has been sent for compulsory treatment over antisemitic comments.

The Central District Military Court in Yekaterinburg has ordered 60-year-old Svetlana Makhnorylova from Verkhny Tagil, a town in the Urals, to undergo compulsory treatment in a psychiatric facility over antisemitic comments, reports Mediazona.

The woman was found guilty on three counts—inciting hatred, insulting war veterans, and justifying terrorism—and was sent to a facility before the verdict had come into force. Her lawyer asked either for her acquittal or for outpatient care with a local psychiatrist, arguing that she behaves appropriately. Before sentencing, she had been under a travel ban.

After the verdict was announced, Makhnorylova said she had no one to leave her cat with, and that the cat had not eaten for two days: while awaiting the verdict, she had spent the night at her sister’s.

The investigation viewed a five-year-old comment starting with the words “Burn them, kikes-Hasidim…” as incitement to hatred (subparagraph “a” of part 2 article 282 of the Criminal Code).

Comments posted in 2021 and 2022 were classified as insulting veterans of the Great Patriotic War (part 4 article 354.1 of the Criminal Code): “Fakes, rear Jewish rats” and “There are no real veterans left. Back under Stalin all the disabled ones were eliminated. Only fake, rear Jewish rats remain.”

Justifying terrorism (part 2 article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) was attributed to an image depicting a person resembling Hitler and a post mentioning Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Breivik. Investigators concluded that Makhnorylova supports Breivik’s ideology and even attached a translated copy of the Norwegian neo-Nazi’s court decision to the case. Makhnorylova herself said during interrogation that she did not know who Breivik was.

Initially, she was also charged with three counts of insulting the feelings of believers (article 148 of the Criminal Code), but the statute of limitations for this offence had expired.

• Previously, Svetlana Makhnorylova had been fined and detained several times under administrative charges—also related to online posts. She was accused of discrediting the Russian military (article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code), inciting hatred or enmity (article 20.3.1), and displaying Nazi or extremist symbols (article 20.3). She was sentenced to ten days’ detention under article 20.3.1, and fined a total of 38,000 roubles (about US$420) under the other articles.