In Russia, the director of the Narva Museum was convicted in absentia for displaying a banner that read "Putin is a war criminal."

The director was sentenced to 10 years in a general regime penal colony. Narvsky museum Maria Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova in a case involving the dissemination of military "fakes" and the rehabilitation of Nazism. The decision was made by a judge of the Moscow City Court. Dmitry Gordeev, Mediazona reports.

The prosecution had demanded a 12-year prison sentence. Furthermore, the court banned Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova from administering websites for five years. The museum director has been on the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs' wanted list since the summer of 2024. In January 2025, she was arrested in absentia in connection with the military "fakes" case, and in July, the Russian Investigative Committee announced the completion of the investigation. Subsequently, the Estonian was also accused of rehabilitating Nazism.

According to investigators, between 2023 and 2025, Smorzhevskikh-Smirnova facilitated the placement of posters on the walls of Narva Castle featuring the image of the Russian president and inscriptions containing false information about his commission of war crimes.

The Narva Museum is located in a medieval castle on the Estonian bank of the river. Narva which forms the border with Russia. For the past three years, a banner reading "Putin is a war criminal" and depicting bloodstains has been displayed on the castle wall on May 9th, visible from the Russian side—in Ivangorod. Russian border guards demanded that the poster be removed, but Estonian authorities refused.

The banner was first displayed after Ivangorod authorities installed a stage with a screen on the Narva embankment in 2023, facing Estonia. The screen broadcast a Victory Day concert featuring a Shaman and Russian patriotic songs.