The Mirror writes that Gretta Vedler also stated that perhaps Vladimir Putin did want to better Russia and its people but simply did not have the ability to do good. Per The Daily Beast, the post was later taken down by Russian censors, and Vedler stopped replying to her friend’s messages. Interestingly, she continued to post photos on social media. Friends, however, knew that something was amiss and quickly grew concerned. Many concluded that she had been jailed or even killed for her very public dissidence against President Putin.
Unfortunately, this was not a brazen thought. Rolling Stone reports that this is the norm in Russia; those who speak up against Putin’s regime are unjustifiably punished or worse. Her friend, Ukrainian blogger Evgeniy Foster, even accused Putin of killing Vedler on his Instagram account. According to The Independent, Foster later asked a friend in Moscow to file a missing person’s report. Over a year after her disappearance, Gretta Vedler’s remains were found by Russian authorities in the trunk of an abandoned car (via The Daily Star). They quickly uncovered that Vedler’s demise was at the hands of someone she knew well.
Source: This post first appeared on
