MOSCOW - More than 100 Russian doctors have signed an open letter to President Vladimir Putin calling for the release of a woman jailed for making a supermarket protest over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A St Petersburg court last week sentenced Alexandra Skochilenko, 33, to seven years in prison for spreading “false information”.

She had swopped supermarket price tags with slogans criticising Russia’s offensive against its neighbour.

Skochilenko, an artist known as Sasha, suffers from health issues such as coeliac disease and a congenital heart defect.

Her mother recently told AFP that a long prison term would be a “catastrophe”.

“As the medical community, we have serious concerns about Sasha’s health,” stated the letter, published on social media and by independent Russian news sites on Nov 18.

“She has been diagnosed with a number of serious chronic diseases that require proper medical supervision and a special dietary regime. Staying in the (prison) colony could lead to a significant deterioration of Sasha’s health,” it added.

Her sentencing has been widely criticised by rights groups and anti-Kremlin campaigners.

In March 2022, Skochilenko replaced price tags with messages that included claims about a Russian strike on a theatre in Mariupol that was reported to have left hundreds dead.

“The cost of this war is the life of our children,” another sticker said.

Russia has mounted a crackdown on dissidents since it launched its full-scale military offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.

Skochilenko was prosecuted under sweeping new censorship laws that have been used to target Russians spreading information about the campaign that goes against the Kremlin’s official narrative.

The letter to Mr Putin was organised by Dr Alexander Vanyukov, a surgeon who wrote a similar petition in 2023 calling for proper medical aid to be given to imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. AFP