cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3616088
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According to Rossinskaya, she fell foul of the Russian authorities because of her volunteer work. ... She said that security forces and Moscow-installed officials in Ukraine’s occupied territories don’t want independent volunteers to know what’s really happening there. Rossinskaya learned, for example, that the occupation authorities in the village of Kozacha Lopan in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region had started charging locals a tax just to sell vegetables from their own gardens. She also discovered that humanitarian aid left by volunteers at the local village council building was being stolen. After that, she began delivering food and medicine directly to people’s homes.
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In May 2023, following a series of threats, Rossinskaya left Russia for Turkey, and then went to Georgia. A year later, however, she returned to Russia for reasons that remain unclear. A week after she came back, on February 1, 2024, FSB agents arrested her in a rented apartment in Belgorod and charged her with “publicly calling for actions that threaten the country’s territorial integrity.”
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In February 2022, Nadezhda Rossinskaya helped evacuate the family of a Ukrainian woman named Iryna Pereborshchykova from Cherkaski Tyshky, a village in the Kharkiv region that was under heavy shelling. The couple initially fled to Russia, then moved on to Georgia. From there, Iryna began helping Rossinskaya’s aid group: the Army of Beauties website listed Iryna’s Georgian bank account among donation options.
After Rossinskaya’s arrest, FSB officers visited the apartment of Iryna’s sister in Voronezh. From there, they called Iryna and asked why her bank details appeared on Rossinskaya’s social media profile. “I told them she saved us, and we’re very grateful. She stayed with us [in Georgia] for a couple of months before returning to Russia and was shocked by how we were living. We had holes in the walls,” Iryna recalled in an interview with Bereg.
According to Iryna, Rossinskaya offered to help raise money so the family could “at least patch the walls,” and they agreed to use Iryna’s card for donations. “Then the disaster at the Kakhovka Reservoir happened,” Iryna continued. “And what was I supposed to do? Just say thanks and move on? People started donating to my cards again.”
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Iryna said she agreed to speak with the Russian officers because she feared for her sister (they already knew her address) and other relatives living in Russia. According to her lawyer, Anton Prisny, donations were also sent to the Russian bank card of Iryna’s niece, who then passed the money on to Iryna. The niece later testified in court that she believed the funds were for her aunt’s dog shelter.
“My family is [the Russian security forces’] leverage,” Iryna said.
I could have just told them to get lost and refused to talk. But they’d have found another way to mess with my family — and forced us into contact anyway. My sister initially refused to appear in court, but they told her she’d be brought in by force. They asked her to help get me to visit her ‘due to her worsening health.’ Even the lawyer [Prisny] said it would be good if I came to Russia — that nothing would happen to me, since I’m a foreign citizen. But I haven’t lost my mind just yet.
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[One Russian] FSB officer began pressuring Rossinskaya’s mother and stepfather, demanding they convince her to confess. He warned them that if she didn’t cooperate, there’d be “the sound of breaking bones — and not just Nadezhda’s.” This same officer had previously called Iryna Pereborshchykova as well.
“When he was interrogating Nadezhda in the first few days, he flat-out told her, ‘You realize I could snap your neck like a chicken’s right now and nothing would happen to me?’” [Nadezhda's mother recalls]. “Right in front of us, he threatened Nadezhda, saying he’d crush her and she’d pay for everything. And to me, he leaned in and said, ‘What about you, Mom — are you her handler? Is she doing all this on your orders?’”
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