«Don’t cry!» How a Human Rights Defender from Saint Petersburg beat the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs
Before leaving Russia, I worked as a lawyer for private companies. Since 2011, I have attended mass protests and since 2017, I have worked in human rights. I helped to defend those who were persecuted during mass protests, including members from the (recently dissolved) Navalny headquarters.
I worked in human rights in my free time, strictly for the public good. I was nevertheless accused of «receiving cookies from the state department». Because many political hearings happened at night or on the weekends, it was possibly to help people and have a day job. It was never easy, though.
Once, after a protest in May of 2018, I left the District Court at 5AM, managed to sleep for a few hours, then went to work. In my free time, I wrote out complaints, pleadings, and other advocacy documents. My colleagues and I were always at a court hearing.
I was also a member of my precinct’s election commission. There, I was tasked with rooting out election fraud.
I was detained for protesting nine times, but nothing worse ever happened. They never charged me and my detentions were deemed unlawful by the courts. The police had to apologise to me.
«These are jokes about Brezhnev, they’ll make fun of us on social media»
On February 26, 2022, I accidentally ran into a familiar police officer. He essentially warned me that something was being prepared against me. Before this, this same officer had hinted that I was going to be arrested before the Navalny rally in January 2021. I still don’t know why he’s helping me.
Even after his warning, I didn’t start preparing for the case. On March 5th, I was supposed to fly to London for vacation. I had bought round-trip tickets; I was sure I would return to Russia.
The week leading to my arrest was tense. I was helping defend Andrey Karelin, who was arrested for anti-war protests. At the metro station, the police started shouting at me, calling me a traitor and saying we’d all rot in jail.
The week before my detention was stressful. I was defending activist Andrey Karelin, arrested for an anti-war protest. At the station, the officers berated me, branding me another traitor to motherhood and asserting that our confinement was imminent.