Alina Lebedeva (russian: Алина Лебедева, lv, Alīna Ļebedeva, born 1985) is a
Latvian Russian politician and activist known for slapping then-
Prince Charles of the United Kingdom with three red flowers in 2001 at age 16. In other actions, she allegedly set fire to a door of the Latvian Ministry of Education and was arrested for a political protest in Moscow.
Early life
Lebedeva is
of Russian ethnicity and grew up in
Daugavpils, Latvia.
Prince Charles incident
On November 8, 2001,
Charles, then-Prince of Wales, made an official visit to Latvia.
Lebedeva, then aged 16 (Lebedeva at that time was a schoolgirl of the 10th grade, Daugavpils 9th secondary school
), approached Charles as he was greeting people at the
Freedom Monument
The Freedom Monument ( lv, Brīvības piemineklis, ) is located in Riga, Latvia, honouring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence (1918–1920). It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty ...
in
Riga and struck him with three red carnations. The incident was reported by international mainstream media.
Lebedeva was immediately arrested and taken to the Department of National Security. She was strip-searched, interrogated, and charged under statute 87 of the Latvian criminal code, which carried a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. After three days, she was released from the detention centre and required to report every day to Daugavpils police station until the case came to trial. Lebedeva had intended the action as a protest against the killing of civilians during the
war in Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to:
*Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC)
* Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709)
*Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...
but forgot to say anything until she was being bundled into a police car. She later told ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'': "I've got no idea what his views are on the war. I saw him just as a representative for Britain".
Prince Charles was on a five-day tour of the Baltic states and privately admitted that the incident had "frightened me rigid".
However, he made a plea for leniency and the charge was dropped from assaulting a foreign dignitary to hooliganism, which carried a maximum prison sentence of two years. Latvian President
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (born 1 December 1937) is a Latvian politician who served as the sixth President of Latvia from 1999 to 2007. She is the first woman to hold the post. She was elected President of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected for the seco ...
and Lebedeva's English teacher had already apologised to the prince.
Eventually, the charge was lessened again; Lebedeva was sentenced to unspecified educational measures and put under her mother's supervision for one year.
If Lebedeva had engaged in criminal activity or hooliganism, her mother would have been put on trial.
Lebedeva subsequently gained the nickname 'Alina Carnation'.
Later life
In 2004, Lebedeva re-appeared on Latvian news when she was arrested for allegedly setting fire to a door at the Ministry of Education. Lebedeva, who was 18 years old at the time, was arrested along with a 21-year-old man in Daugavpils. She was not charged, but a judge ordered her to be placed in detention for a week whilst the crime was investigated. The arson attack was allegedly connected to a
National Bolshevik Party
The National Bolshevik Party (NBP; russian: Национал-большевистская партия), also known as the Nazbols (russian: нацболы), operated from 1993 to 2007 as a Russian political party with a political program of Nat ...
protest against a new law requiring that all schools teach mainly in
Latvian.
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
reported later in 2004 that Lebedeva was amongst the National Bolshevik Party activists arrested after an action in which they invaded the Russian presidential offices in Moscow and hung a banner which read "Putin go away".
Lebedeva was then jailed for two years.
Lebedeva stood for election as a
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
for the
Motherland
A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...
party in
2009. She was the second person on the Motherland
party list, after the party's leader Juris Žuravļovs.
Lebedeva then renounced politics and returned to her studies. As of 2012, she had earned a bachelor's degree in
social pedagogy Social pedagogy describes a holistic and relationship-centred way of working in care and educational settings with people across the course of their lives. In many countries across Europe (and increasingly beyond), it has a long-standing tradition a ...
and was preparing for a master's degree.
See also
*
Katie Sierra free speech case – the case of an American teenager who protested the Afghanistan War at school
References
External links
Free Alina Lebedeva
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebedeva, Alina
Latvian activists
1980s births
Living people
Latvian people of Russian descent
People from Daugavpils
21st-century Latvian women politicians