Support women political prisoners
Update: We’ve closed this fundraiser but will really appreciate you supporting the bigger one for anti-war activists. It’s going hard and we are enormously thankful for all you support. Spread the word! memopzk.org/en/news/anti-war-fundraiser/
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The year is 2025. The number of political prisoners in Russia is growing every day, with women and children among them.
There are now 72 women on Memorial’s lists of recognised political prisoners, but our project’s database contains 266 names of women imprisoned in politically motivated cases.
We estimate that there are at least 10,000 Russians and Ukrainians who are victims of political repression in Russian prisons. Therefore, the total number of women imprisoned on likely political grounds may be as high as 1,000.
The women persecuted are diverse: they are of a wide range of ages, come from various regions and do very different jobs. The youngest is 15 years old (she was 14 at the time of her detention) and the oldest is 86. Among them are teachers, nurses, researchers, housewives, beauticians, journalists and IT specialists.
Today we are starting a €5800 fundraiser for women who are in pre-trial detention centres and colonies right now.
They really need our help and support:
We are collecting €680 for a Crimean woman, Halina Dovgopola. The pensioner was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony under the article on state treason. She allegedly collected information for Ukrainian intelligence. Halina has already spent more than 5 years in pre-trial detention and colony.
Now she wants to get a transfer to the colony where her relatives live — she needs money for a lawyer who will visit her in the colony, advise her and appeal against the decision in case of rejection.
We are raising €310 for Lyudmila Razumova to top up her prison account (so she can buy something in the prison shop) over the next few months. Lyudmila and her husband Alexander were sentenced to 7 and 6.5 years in a penal colony because of anti-war comments and graffiti.
On 28 February Lyudmila went on a dry hunger strike in prison to protest against the spurious reports of the colony staff, because of which she has been sanctioned with penalties. She demands to be sent to the prison hospital for treatment.
Anna Bazhutova needs €310. The girl was accused of spreading ‘fakes’ about the war against Ukraine and sentenced to 5.5 years in a penal colony.
Now Anna is being transferred to the colony. Her parents are going to her for a long visit, and we want to help them pay for the tickets.
€310 will help cover Daria Polyudova’s prison account over the next few months. Daria has been in detention since 2020. Her father died recently.
It is hard for her mother to provide for Daria’s needs in the colony alone.
We are collecting €1150 for Anastasia Dyudyaeva to pay for the work of her lawyer and to top up her prison account for several months. Anastasia and her husband were sentenced to terms in a penal colony on terrorism charges for putting up postcards in support of Ukraine in a supermarket.
We are raising €310 for Anna Arkhipova to provide humanitarian aid in the pre-trial detention centre. Anna is accused of participating in the activities of the youth democratic movement ‘Vesna’. She is charged under seven articles, including the article on military ‘fakes’.
€310 to help the parents of Yelena Popova from Rostov-on-Don.
Elena was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined €5200 for transferring €70 to the blogger Arkady Babchenko. The parents of the girl paid the fine and covered the lawyer’s fees.
€310 to collect for Svetlana Marina. Svetlana is a software engineer, blogger and civil activist from Kirov. She was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in a penal colony under the article on ‘discrediting the army’ for anti-war comments on the Internet. The money is needed to buy shoes for the warm season and to send a few parcels.
Four women from Kazan are accused in one criminal case on terrorist organisation charges because of their alleged involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir. We are raising money to top up their prison accounts for the next several months. We need a total of €1250 for Leysan Sadykova, Alsina Khayrullina, Rania Vaisova and Albina Valiakhmetova.
We cannot disclose one of the names because of further risks from Russian authorities for the prisoner. But we need €310 for a prison account top-up during the following few months for a woman who was sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for a €50 transfer to a Ukrainian blogger.
We received requests worth €5250. We also have to include payment system commissions and the costs of transferring funds from other currencies to roubles which we estimate as €550. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid these expenses. In total, we need to raise €5800.
Please support the fundraiser for women political prisoners!
