A Scottish exchange student was fined and briefly detained for giving a lecture on feminism in Siberia in the latest incident targeting foreign students in Russia.
Last month, a German student was reported to have been expelled from a Russian university and ordered to leave the country after writing an article about environmental protests.
Harriet Phillips, 21, a Cambridge exchange student based in St. Petersburg, was reportedly detained in the city of Krasnoyarsk because her tourist visa does not permit her to give public speeches.
Police broke up the Scottish student’s feminism lecture 30 minutes after it started, attendants told the local prmira.ru news website.
Phillips was released after filing paperwork for the administrative fine, police said. Fines for visa infractions range from 2,000 rubles to 5,000 rubles ($31-$80).
She shared the news of her infraction on social media but has otherwise refrained from commenting on the incident.
“How do you like it here in Siberia?” an eyewitness heard a police officer asking Phillips, prmira.ru reported.
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