Grandmother accused of desecrating grave of Putin's parents: 'Wish for him to die'

A grandmother has been detained and charged with desecrating the grave of Vladimir Putin's parents in an anti-war protest.

Irina Tsybaneva, 60, an accountant, faces up to five years in jail after allegedly writing in a note that she wished Putin to die.

It is the second time the grave at the Serafimov cemetery in St Petersburg has been targeted as backlash over the war with Ukraine grows.

Putin’s mother Maria died aged 87 in 1998, and his father Vladimir the following year aged 88.

The detained woman's son Maksim Tsybanev, 37, general director of a construction company, told Mediazona that his mother had been detained over a note left at the grave.

“What was in the note is not known for certain,” he said.

“But she said that there was a wish [for Putin] to die.”

Tsybaneva at first refused to open her apartment when police came, only doing so when they threatened to smash their way in.

Her lawyer Sergey Trusov said a case had been opened under “desecration of the dead and their burial places, committed on the grounds of political, ideological, and racial, national or religious hatred or enmity”.

She was hauled before the Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg.

Investigators want her to be held in detention pending trial.

Grave of Putin's parents previously targeted

Last month — in a separate incident — anti-war protesters posted a note at the grave of Putin's parents saying: “Dear parents! Your son is behaving disgracefully!

“He skips history lessons, fights with classmates, threatens to blow up the whole school. Take action!”

The stunt was from Russian art activists known as The Party of the Dead.

• Putin 'flees to secret palace' amid shocking new mobilisation claim

• Belarus joins Ukraine war in alarming escalation: 'Tell the lunatics'

• 'General Armageddon' now in charge of Russia’s war: 'Absolutely ruthless'

The earlier protest also wished for Putin’s death.

The group expressed the hope that the dead parents would “take him to themselves someday”.

The messages on the tomb of Putin's parents come as his unpopular “partial mobilisation” has triggered an upsurge in protests over the war in Ukraine.

East2West/Australscope

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.