Help the Women Being Tortured in Russian Prisons
01/05/2014
Why is it important for me to work with the Russian prison system? The answer is simple. Because girls and women behind bars tell me: "My dream is to get TB (tuberculosis) to just get out of the IK-2 prison!" These women have somewhere to go after their release, they have parents and children. But they are humiliated, repressed, devoid of the will to live so much that they are ready to catch a serious disease on purpose -- for only one reason -- to leave the prison for a prison hospital. Prison, where they are beaten with clubs, bars and ankle boots, where they sleep only few hours a day, where they are hauling concrete blocks and where they are tortured and killed. Therefore we are creating "Justice Zone." This is a platform which will be the basis for collective action of people united by a concern regarding the fate of those prisoners whose lives are crumbling under the Russian penal system.
I do not know what is happening to Vika right now. It worries me, worries me a lot. These days -- New Year's weekend, lawyers are not allowed in the prison. More precisely, for some it is New Year's weekend, but for someone -- a single cold chamber, a punishment cell. It would be great if you let Russian Federal Prison officials know that we will not forget about their lawlessness. And we will keep reminding them about it by calling or writing again and again. We need to make it clear to the prison directors in the IK-2 and the Mordovian prison system that they cannot punish Vika Dubrovina with impunity to avenge that her friend writes about the situation in the prison.
Thanks to all those who are not indifferent,
Nadia Tolokonnikova
01/05/2014
Why is it important for me to work with the Russian prison system? The answer is simple. Because girls and women behind bars tell me: "My dream is to get TB (tuberculosis) to just get out of the IK-2 prison!" These women have somewhere to go after their release, they have parents and children. But they are humiliated, repressed, devoid of the will to live so much that they are ready to catch a serious disease on purpose -- for only one reason -- to leave the prison for a prison hospital. Prison, where they are beaten with clubs, bars and ankle boots, where they sleep only few hours a day, where they are hauling concrete blocks and where they are tortured and killed. Therefore we are creating "Justice Zone." This is a platform which will be the basis for collective action of people united by a concern regarding the fate of those prisoners whose lives are crumbling under the Russian penal system.
I do not know what is happening to Vika right now. It worries me, worries me a lot. These days -- New Year's weekend, lawyers are not allowed in the prison. More precisely, for some it is New Year's weekend, but for someone -- a single cold chamber, a punishment cell. It would be great if you let Russian Federal Prison officials know that we will not forget about their lawlessness. And we will keep reminding them about it by calling or writing again and again. We need to make it clear to the prison directors in the IK-2 and the Mordovian prison system that they cannot punish Vika Dubrovina with impunity to avenge that her friend writes about the situation in the prison.
Thanks to all those who are not indifferent,
Nadia Tolokonnikova
Viktoria Pavlovna Dubrovina (Vika - above) still has three years to serve at the Women's Penal Colony in Mordovia (IK-2). She is currently being held in the ice insulator (cold punishment cell) as hostage against 'Justice Zone'.
Note: To send written complaints to Russian authorities:
Addresses in Russian:
1) Прокуратура Республики Мордовия -- 430005, Саранск, ул. Льва Толстого, 4
2) ФСИН России -- 119991, Москва, ГСП-1, Житная ул., 14
3) УФСИН России по Республике Мордовия -- 431160, Республика Мордовия, п. Явас, ул. Косарева 12
4) Генпрокуратура Рф -- 125993, ГСП-3, Россия, Москва ул. Б. Дмитровка, 15а
Addresses in English:
1) The Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Mordovia -- 430005, Saransk, ul. Leo Tolstoy, 4
2) The FSIN of Russia -- 119991, Moscow, GSP-1, Zhitnaya st., 14
3) UFSIN of Russia in the Republic of Mordovia -- 431160, Republic of Mordovia, village Yavas, Kosarev Street 12
4) The Prosecutor General's Office -- 125993 , GSP-3, Moscow, Russia. B. Dmitrovka Street 15a
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