Welcome to the twenty-fifth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. My guest today is human rights activist and founder of the European LGBT human rights organization Equal – PostOST, Evelina Chaika. A year ago, the non-existent “international LGBT movement” was designated an extremist organization and banned in Russia. This was the culmination of long-drawn-out struggle against anything not considered ‘traditional family life’ in Putin’s Russia. The history of homosexuality in Russia – as in other countries – is not straightforward. But while in other countries it was decriminalized long ago, in post-Soviet Russia this happened only in 1993 by decree of the first president of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. This was a preamble to joining the Council of Europe, an organisation for which the right to choose one’s sexuality is an integral part of human rights. However, it took a few more years for homosexuality to be removed from the list of illnesses in Russia. This only happened on 1 January 1999. At that point in time, homosexuals received the right to serve in the army. But today, in Putin’s Russia, the situation for the LGBT community is becoming more serious and dangerous. With the passage of the law banning transgender transition on 14 July 2023, trans and non-binary people have lost a legal avenue for recognition of their identity. The law has also jeopardized the safety of trans people who have already transitioned. Over the past ten years, Russian authorities have consistently restricted the rights of the LGBT community and shaped negative public attitudes through official statements and the media. The most important signal of a change of course was the adoption of a law on the banning of LGBT propaganda in relation to children in 2013. According to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, 90% of Russians were in favour of this law. After its adoption, many members of the LGBT community decided to leave Russia, and the number of those who have left continues to grow. This podcast was recorded on 28 November 2024. Questions: Evelina, tell us a little bit about yourself. What kind of family were you born into, and what do you remember about your own journey to the realization that you have a different orientation? You have been living in Germany for many years now. Was there a moment when you realized you could no longer live in Russia? Why did you decide to found Equal-PostOST? Please explain its goals. Who do you help and with what? How much demand is there for Equal-PostOST’s services? In your opinion, why is the LGBT community so persecuted in Putin’s Russia? What role does this struggle play in the ideology of Putinism? What have been the key stages in the persecution of the LGBT community under Putin? Gays in Chechnya have long been subjected to severe discrimination and persecution by the local authorities. What is the situation there now? And what can LGBT people do in Chechnya to protect themselves? Do you have any information about how LGBT people live in Russia now? Could you give us a few examples of things that can happen to members of the community? Is there any data on how many LGBT people have decided to leave Russia since 2013? Do any stories of individuals come to mind? Can you explain why Russia’s anti-LGBT laws are in violation of human rights? Do you believe that 90 percent of Russians supported the law banning LGBT propaganda to children in 2013? Why are most Russian people so intolerant of different orientations? What is the main factor in today’s Russia determining attitudes towards gay people – is it public opinion or state repression? Is there hope for change for the better?

Welcome to the twenty-fourth edition n of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. There is a well-known saying from the late Soviet period: “Russia is a country with an unpredictable past”. It resonates anew, this time in Putin’s Russia. My guest today is Irina Shcherbakova, a historian, who has been associated with the Russian grass-roots organisation “Memorial” since its foundation in 1988. After graduating from the Faculty of Philology at Moscow State University in the 1970s, she worked in the field of oral history, collecting the testimonies of victims of Stalinism. Through her work, Irina Shcherbakova has gained a deep understanding of how first the Soviet and later the Federation of Russia’s regimes’ interpretation of Russian history has changed over the years.  From glasnost in the Gorbachev era, when Memorial was founded, to the present day, the past in Russia has indeed been “unpredictable”.  It is about this and other more personal matters that I hope to talk to our guest today.  This podcast was recorded on 10 October 2024. My questions: Tell us a little about yourself.  Who were your parents? What moral guidelines or role models did you take with you from your childhood? Back in the 1970s, you began collecting the testimonies of victims of Stalinism.  How did you find people who were willing to talk back then? What was the most important thing for you personally that you learned in the course of your research? How easy was it to do this work in Soviet times before glasnost and when the memory of the Stalinist era was still very fresh? How did it happen that you became one of the founders of “Memorial”? What were the goals that you and your co-founders hoped to achieve in setting up the organisation? At what point, in addition to researching Stalinist repressions, did “Memorial” become actively engaged in contemporary events? Was this during the Yeltsin era?  What is your attitude to lustration? Should it have been carried out in the early 1990s in your opinion? On the theme of what more could have been done after the collapse of the Soviet Union, people often talk about the need to give a ‘legal assessment’ of historical events or to hold a tribunal to judge Stalin’s crimes. What do you think about this, and is such a process possible in the future?

Welcome to the twenty-third edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. My guest today is the Russian artist Slava Ptrk. The Crypt Gallery in central London recently hosted a multimedia exhibition called The Brainwashing Machine, about the uses of propaganda.  The exhibition, which first opened in Madrid, showed works by artists from a range of different countries, but the great majority was from Russia. The venue in the basement of the Crypt at St. Pancras Church provided a dark and atmospheric labyrinth, with dark cells where little light penetrated.  In these alcoves and on their rough walls, were displayed intriguing interpretations of the role of propaganda in contemporary life. Among them, were works by Sasha Skochilenko, made while she was still in prison in Russia, Pavel Otdelnov and Nadia Tolokonnikova. One could also read and hear the words of dramatist Zhenya Berkovich and director Svetlana Petriichuk, both still in a Russian prison today. But personally, I was most taken by the works of our guest today: Slava Ptrk This podcast was recorded on 19 September 2024. My questions include: Tell us about your name, if you would. It’s a pseudonym, but why did you choose to glorify PTRK? Tell us about how you came to be a part of The Brainwashing Machine exhibition about propaganda? Your works exhibited in the exhibition – did you make them especially for the exhibition ? Perhaps your most memorable work in the exhibition is called ‘I am not interested in politics.’ Tell us about it and how it came about. You started your professional career as a journalist. Is that why propaganda and its impact are important subjects for you? What were your experiences as a journalist in this regard? What served as the impetus for you to become an artist? What were your first steps in this direction. What is most for you in expressing yourselMy questions include: Tell us about your name, if you would. It’s a pseudonym, I guess,  but why did you choose to glorify PTRK? Tell us about how you came to be a part of The Brainwashing Machine exhibition? Your works for the exhibition – did you make them especially? Perhaps your most memorable work in the exhibition is called ‘I am not interested in politics.’ Tell us about it and how it came about. You started your professional career as a journalist. Is that why propaganda and its impact are important subjects for you? What were your experiences as a journalist in this regard? What served as the impetus for you to become an artist? What were your first steps as an artist? What is most important to you in giving expression to yourself and the surrounding reality in your art? You have said that your chief instrument is irony. Another work in The Brainwashing Machine exhibition in London is called ‘Steps’ and next to it is a work titled ‘Ways.’ What do these works represent? How do they relate to propaganda?  Looking at your street art, one could guess that Banksy was a strong influence on your work. Is that so,  or did you take inspiration elsewhere? Your final work in the London exhibition is called ‘The Sinnerman.’ It is uses a mobile phone screen. How should one understand this work and what, or who, is depicted in it? When and why did you decide to leave Russia? How does being outside Russia affect your choice of subjects for your current and future work? Do you have hopes of returning to Russia?

My guest today is documentary filmmaker Askold Kurov, whose latest film, “Of Caravans and Dogs,” was screened this past June in England as part of the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival, the largest festival of its kind in the UK. According to the festival programme, this “bold and compelling documentary looks at the curtailment of press freedom in Russia on the eve of and during the invasion of Ukraine.” The credits list two directors. One is “Anonymous Number 1” and the other is our guest today, Askold Kurov. This podcast was recorded on 29 August 2024. My questions include:  1. Askold, I watched your film with great interest. Please explain the origins of the title.  2. In the Sheffield Docfest programme, your unique access to people and events is much praised.  Tell us how the documentary came about?  In the credits, it says that the film was made with the support of Novaya Gazeta.  Was it their idea or did you approach them with the idea? 3.  Tell us about the relationship between you and your team. Your co-director, as well as two others in key roles – the sound recordist and the editor - all chose to remain anonymous, but you didn’t. 4.  I heard a journalist at TV Dozhd say that the Russian authorities had played the independent opposition media, that they had done everything to get opposition journalists to quit Russia voluntarily so that there would be no one left to push back against government pressure and censorship in Russia.  What do you think? 5.  You didn’t leave Russia straight after the beginning of the war.  You now live outside Russia.  What prompted your departure finally?  6.  Do you keep in touch with your “anonymous” colleagues from the film?  How are they doing? 7.  Many people, including in your film, talk about Russian journalists’ own self-censorship.  Do you think this is an option?  Does it promote or destroy quality journalism? 8.  Access to all independent sources of information in Russia is increasingly restricted.  What sources of information remain open to Russians and is there a demand for it?  Has this changed since the Ukrainian army’s recent incursions in the Kursk region? 9..  Tell us a little about yourself.  Where did you grow up and how did you become a documentary film-maker? 10. I remember very well the strong impression I took away from your 2017 film about Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov, who was arrested during the annexation of Crimea and taken away to be imprisoned in Russia.  What did your close interactions with and observations of Ukrainians reveal about the differences between Ukrainians and Russians? 11.  Could you have predicted then that Russia would start a full-scale war against Ukraine? 12.  How do you see the war ending? 13.  Are you currently working on a new project?   14. How do you find living in a foreign country? 15. How do you see your future? In Russia?  Under what circumstances?

Hello and welcome to the Then and Now podcast with me, Teresa Cherfas. Our guest today is Nadezhda Skochilenko.  On November 16, 2023, the Vasileostrovsky court sentenced her daughter, Aleksandra Skochilenko, to seven years in a general regime penal colony. Sasha Skochilenko’s ‘crime’ was committed about a month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and consisted in the substitution by Sasha of price labels in a Perekrestok supermarket with short anti-war texts. It was a small subversive act by a witty and talented artist. But the aftermath changed both her own and her mother’s lives. My questions include: 1. Were you aware that Sasha was going to replace the price labels in the supermarket? Or did you find out about it later? 2. Did it surprise you? How did you react? 3 I remember seeing pictures of these new price labels by Sasha on Facebook, and being amazed by the subtlety of the idea and its execution – you had to look pretty closely to realize that the labels had completely different texts from the usual ones. The font, the format, the size – everything had been carefully copied but with added facts about the victims of the Special Military Operation. Did she imagine then what consequences it could lead to? And did you realize the danger of what she was doing? 4. Tell us about Sasha – what kind of person is she and what was she like as a child? I understand that she’s a talented musician and artist.  How did you bring her up? 5. You now live in France. Had you previously thought of leaving Russia, or was it because of Sasha’s arrest? 6. Sasha was kept in prison for more than 19 months before her trial. What were conditions like for her and how did she cope? Did it affect her health? 7. Seven years in prison for such a ‘crime’ – at the time this seemed unimaginably severe.. Was it a surprise to Sasha? And to you? 8. What can you do to help her from outside Russia? 9. Various organizations, including Rights in Russia, encourage people to write letters to political prisoners in Russia. Does Sasha receive such letters? What do they mean to her? 10. Where possible, do you try to disseminate information in the West about other political prisoners in Russia? Do you think the West does enough to support them and intercede on their behalf? 11. Does the fact that both Amnesty International and Memorial have recognized Sasha as a prisoner of conscience and a political prisoner, and demand her immediate and unconditional release, have any impact on her fate? 12. How do you see the future for Sasha? And for yourself?

Welcome to the twentieth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. My guest today is Olga Sadovskaya, a lawyer from the civil society group, Team Against Torture. The project’s members have been investigating complaints by Russians about torture for over two decades. Thanks to their work, hundreds of cases of torture by law enforcement officers have reached the courts and compensation from the state has been awarded to their victims. Olga Sadovskaya lives and works in her native city of Nizhny Novgorod. She graduated from Lobachevsky State University with a degree in Public International Law, defending the first thesis in Russia on the prohibition of torture and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights on this issue. She has been taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights for over 20 years. This podcast was recorded on 20 June 2024. My questions include: You chose a rather unusual topic for your diploma. In 2003, when you defended it, what profession did you think you would pursue in the future? How did it come about that you specialised in torture? In Russia, it seems to me, few people are concerned about torture – people think ‘that’s just how it should be’, or ‘they deserve it, and that’s all there is to it.’ How do you explain the rather high tolerance for violence in Russia? Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has the Russian public’s attitude to torture changed? Has it become better, worse, or have moral and ethical guidelines shifted in general? Previously, in such situations it was common to appeal to the ECtHR, but in 2022 the Russian Federation withdrew from the jurisdiction of the European Court. What tools are now left for Russian human rights defenders to seek justice? I read somewhere that you have said that “all wars end in a resolution of peace.” In your opinion, will Russia’s war against Ukraine also end through peace negotiations? With the intervention of international forums, or do the warring parties no longer have confidence in them?   What is it like for you and other human rights defenders to work under current conditions? Since the spring of 2022, when the register of foreign agents is updated every Friday, have many of your colleagues left the country or given up their human rights practice? How does the ‘foreign agent’ label affect your professional work. And can you explain what is an “undesirable organisation”? Have you ever received any threats yourself? Or have there been administrative cases initiated against you? What is meant by the word “torture” and what should a person do if they find themselves in a situation where, in their opinion, they are being subjected to torture? And what if they are exposed  to torture in detention? What should they do then? Is there such a thing as psychological torture? Have you experienced it yourself in your work as a human rights defender? Can such a term be applied to what happened to your fellow resident of Nizhny Novgorod, Irina Slavina, who committed suicide in the most horrible way in front of the Interior Ministry building in the city centre in 2020? You said somewhere that ‘even if a person is not themselves directly involved in torture, they could still be party to the system of violence.’ Can you elaborate?  What does the police treatment of suspects in the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall in March this year tell us about today’s Russia? In Russia now everyone is living with uncertainty. What options for the future of your work do you see? Can you imagine ever being forced to give up your work – that the screws will be tightened to such an extent that it will be impossible to work in the field of human rights in Russia?

Our guest today is Iryna Khalip, a Belarusian journalist and participant in the 2010 protests against election fraud in the presidential elections in Belarus. Her husband is the politician Andrei Sannikov who ran as an opposition presidential candidate in those very elections. Since 2006, Iryna has been working as Belarus correspondent for Novaya gazeta, now Novaya gazeta – Evropа. Before that, Iryna worked in local opposition media, was an activist, was sent to prison, subjected to threats from the Belarusian special services and was a victim of psychological threats from the authorities. Today we will talk to Iryna about herself, the war in Ukraine, and the relationship between Lukashenka and Putin, between Russia and Belarus. This podcast was recorded on 30 May 2024. Our questions include: Iryna, I was honestly amazed when I read about you in Wikipedia. Tell us about your activism against President Lukashenka of Belarus and his unlimited power in the country?  When did you start your activism and what have been the consequences for you personally? You took part in the protests against election fraud in 2010. How did the 2020 protests differ from the 2010 protests? What are the reasons for the failure of the latest protests, perhaps the most massive protests in the history of Belarus?  It is said that the prison system and the situation of political prisoners in Belarus is much worse than in Russia.  Can you comment on this?  Have they tightened the screws in prisons since you were there? What made you decide to leave Belarus? Today there is a lot of talk that Russia is following the path that Belarus has already travelled. Is this true? What has changed in Belarus since Russia announced the Special Military Operation on February 24, 2022?  How has Russia’s war against Ukraine affected the relationship between Belarus and Russia? What does Lukashenka see as Belarus’ role in this war?    How can one explain the location of the Wagner base, and previously Prigozhin himself, on the territory of Belarus?   How would you describe the state of democratic forces in Belarus today?  Do they have a chance to influence the situation in the country?  How would you characterize relations between those who left the country and those who stayed? In Russia, the gap between the two seems to be getting wider and deeper. We know about the changes in school textbooks in Russia, especially in Russian history, about the militarization of education even in elementary schools.  What is the situation in Belarus?  Is it true that many children study abroad? What can be said about the shortage of labour in Belarus?  Can we assume that Belarus has its own path for the future? What will it look like?  Can the West somehow influence the political future of Belarus, or is it doomed to remain a satellite of Russia? Do you think you will ever return home? And what needs to take place in the country for that to happen?

My guest today is Leyla Latypova, a journalist who works as a special correspondent for the English-language newspaper The Moscow Times. An ethnic Tatar from the republic of Bashkortostan, Leyla writes about politics and civil society in Russia’s regions and national republics.  In her work, she promotes and defends the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities in the Russian Federation. She now lives in Amsterdam. In this edition of “Then & Now,” we talk to Leyla about the war, about national movements and about the future of ethnic minorities in Russia – and of Russia in general. My questions include: Where were you when you heard President Putin’s announcement about the Special Military Operation in February 2022? What was your first reaction? What were your thoughts as to the future impact of the war on ethnic minorities in Russia? Why is it that a disproportionate number of conscripts from ethnic minorities in Russia’s regions serve in the Russian army – Buryats, for example, or Tatars? Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you born, what did your parents do, and do you have any key memories that have particularly shaped your life? Have there been times when you personally encountered Russian chauvinism or observed its impact on others in Bashkortostan? Do you sense an imperial mindset in Russian people? What do you attribute this to? What was your motivation when you decided to change your place of residence and move to another country? Was it related to Putin’s policies? How do you work as a journalist when you are located far from your sources? Tell me about the recent protests in Bashkortostan? After all, they were quite large-scale and yet little is known about them in the West. Do you think the war against Ukraine could be a catalyst for major changes in Russia? When people talk about the de-colonization of Russia, what does it mean? At the beginning of the war, many analysts believed that the logical outcome of the war would be the collapse of the Russian Empire. They see this as a process which began in 1917, continued in 1991, and has not yet been completed. They see the war against Ukraine as striking a kind of a death blow to the empire. In your view, is the further disintegration of the Russian Empire inevitable? How might the country look in the future?

Our guest today is Zoia Svetova, renowned journalist and human rights activist. She continues to live and work in Moscow.  She is the author of several books, including Priznat’ nevinovnogo vinovnym [To Find the Innocent Guilty]. Her voice is perhaps one of the few authoritative oppositionist voices still heard in Russia today.   This podcast was recorded on 26 March 2024. My questions include: When it became known that Russian troops had invaded Ukraine in 2022, could you ever have imagined such a thing happening? You decided to stay in Russia. Did you discuss with your family, your four adult children, whether to leave or stay in Russia? Can I ask you to tell us a little about your family? After all, you are part of Russia’s hereditary dissident aristocracy, if I may put it like that. Tell us about your parents, what you most remember about them, about their lives?  Your husband was also involved in the dissident movement.  How did you meet? And how did you bring up your children, what were the main moral values you tried to pass on to them? When Putin became president in 2000, did you have any hopes? Was there a key episode when it became clear for you which direction his regime was heading? The title of this podcast, “Then and Now,” is associated with the fateful date of 24 February 2022. But there has since been another terrible date that will be a significant event in the perception of the world and of Russian public opinion  – 16 February this year. What was your first reaction when you learned of Aleksei Navalny’s death in the Polar Wolf penal colony. What did Navalny mean for Russia, what did he symbolise? And what did his death in prison mean for the future of Russia? You were at Aleksei’s funeral in Moscow. Could you share the mood that prevailed there, what you observed –  tell us about your impressions. Should other political prisoners in Russia now fear for their lives? Just recently, a presidential election was conducted in Russia. If I’m not mistaken, you were abroad at that time. Did you take part in the “Noon against Putin” protest? Did the protests bring any benefits? And is there any difference between such protests in Russia and abroad? Your sons Tikhon and Filip are engaged in interesting work abroad. Does the fact that Tikhon is on the register of foreign agents and is editor-in-chief of the Dozhd TV company, which has been declared an undesirable organization in Russia, affect your life in Moscow in any way? After the attack on Leonid Volkov, a leading member of Navalny’s team, in Vilnius, do you fear for your own children and other Russian oppositionists living outside Russia?  What would have to happen in Russia for you to change your mind and leave the country? What needs to happen in Russia for your children and grandchildren to return home?  What are your thoughts about the recent terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow?  Do you think 22 March 2024 will be another milestone in the history of the Putin regime?

My guest today is Anastasia Burakova, a human rights lawyer and democratic activist from Russia.  We are still in shock at the news of the murder of Aleksei Navalny in a high-security penal colony in the settlement of Kharp.  Aleksei Navalny’s political star rose as a leader of the opposition to the Putin regime in 2011.  That year, 2011, played a significant part in the  political coming of age of  today’s guest - Anastasia Burakova, a Russian human rights lawyer and activist for democratic change in Russia - and influenced the trajectory of her professional life. However, ten years later, in November 2021, Anastasia was forced to leave Russia. She moved to Georgia after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, where she founded the Ark Project (‘Kovcheg’). Initially, set up to offer help to exiled Russians because of their opposition to the war, over time, Ark’s activities have broadened. This podcast was recorded on 22 February 2024. My questions include: I am haunted by two thoughts that never leave me now – the death in prison of Aleksei Navalny and the second year of war inUkraine. What thoughts have occupied you most this past week? In an interview almost one year ago, you talked about a ‘white rose’ of resistance in Russia. Are there grounds for optimism in Russia today? The journalist Elena Kostyuchenko wrote in her book about Russia: “Why did I ever think my life would be different?” Do you have an answer for her? Tell us a little about your childhood. Were there any key moments in your biography that led you to your choice of profession and the path you followed? You have said that the year 2011 played a big role in your own development. What does 2011 in Russia mean to you? What are your most vivid impressions of that year? You left Russia at the end of 2021, just 10 years later. What happened in the intervening years in the field of civic activism? To what extent did human rights and civic activism face new and more difficult challenges in the period leading up to the invasion of Ukraine? What defined the relationship of the authorities to civil society? Soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you founded the Ark Project. What was the idea behind the project and who are the beneficiaries? Is there any real hope for the Russian opposition in exile? What can it really do?  What do the countries that have welcomed Russian exiles have to gain from their presence?  Aleksei Navalny from prison urged the Russian people to act. He proposed that people should go to the polling stations on the last day of the election, 17 March, at 12.00 noon local time, and stand in line outside the polling station in protest. Do you think there’s a chance that many will do this following his assassination in prison by the Russian authorities? What do you think the future holds for you? And what are your thoughts about the future of Russia?

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas.  My guest today is Anna Karetnikova. Until recently, Anna Karetnikova lived and worked in Moscow.  In 2016, she was appointed lead analyst to the Federal Penitentiary Service – FSIN. Prior to that, she served for eight years as a member of the Public Oversight Commission (POC) in Moscow and worked closely with the human rights organisation “Memorial”. Anna Karetnikova exemplified that rare combination in Russia of someone who was both a human rights activist and a government-appointed official working for the FSIN. For several years she pulled this off brilliantly. But just over a year ago, she was forced to leave Russia. The events that led to this decision and how she feels about life in exile are among the topics we will be talking about. This podcast was recorded on 8 February 2024. ou can also listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Podcasts.com, Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and YouTube.  My questions include: Before your appointment to the Federal Penitentiary Service, you worked in the Public Oversight Commission in Moscow. What were the functions of this commission and how did your work there lead to your appointment to the Federal Penitentiary Service? Did you have any interests or occupations from a young age which helped you decide to take up this kind of work? How did it happen that you were invited to join the FSIN? What did  your work there involve?  Is it true there is no such position as lead analyst in any other regional branch of the FSIN? How does the system of corresponding with political prisoners work? Do they really receive letters of support from people they don’t know? Do the authorities still allow this? Unlike many of your colleagues, acquaintances and friends in human rights organizations, you stayed in Russia after the Special Military Operation was launched on February 24th 2022? Was leaving Russia not an issue for you at that time? What changed in the FSIN system that prompted you to decide to leave Russia almost a year later? What was your reaction when you learned about the recruitment of lifers in the penal system to the Wagner private military company? What did it say about the attitude of the authorities both to the war and to society as a whole? What changes did you observe in the FSIN and in the regime to prisons and penal colonies after the start of the war? And in the treatment of prisoners? Were there problems, for example, with supplies? Or other issues? xould they still correspond with relatives and have visits from them? Would you say the numbers of political prisoners has increased since the start of the war? With your experience and knowledge of the penal system in Russia, what can you comment about the treatment of Aleksei Navalny in the penal colony? To what extent does his treatment differ from the treatment of other prisoners? And how? And Vladimir Kara-Murza? Could you comment on his recent transfer to the correctional colony No. 7 Omsk.  You currently live in France. Why France? How do you see your future?  And the future of Russia?

My guests today are Mamuka Kuparadze, the founder of Studio Re in Tbilisi, which works to advance ‘people’s diplomacy’ through documentary film, and Aleksandr Pichugin, a Russian journalist, originally from Nizhny Novgorod, who left Russia with his family immediately after the announcement of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and started a new life in Tbilisi. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the flow of Russian citizens fleeing the war to Georgia has reached an unprecedented 100,000. That’s the size of two small Georgian cities such as Gori, for example. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, relations between Georgia and Russia have not been easy. There have been wars of secession, first in South Ossetia, then in Abkhazia, and their de facto removal from Georgian government control. And the culmination of these wars, we can say, took place 15 years later, in 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia and won a five-day war after which Russia “officially” recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (both are still considered by the international community as legitimate parts of Georgia. Georgia itself calls them Russian-occupied territories). In this edition of ‘Then and Now’, we take a look at how Georgian society and government perceives these immigrants from Russia and how Russian immigrants live there. The recording was made on 4 January 2024. My questions include: Aleksandr, what pushed you to such an important decision for yourself and your family? After all, it is not easy to start from scratch in a foreign country? Why Georgia? Did the visa system play a role in your decision? Did you find a place to live? A job? Tell us a little about how you solved such domestic problems and how you were received by Georgian society. Is there a sense of a separate ‘Russian world’ in Tbilisi? Mamuka, Studio Re recently released a short movie about how the local population feels about the flow of Russian immigrants into their country. What were the main findings of your research? How does the flow of Russians into Georgia affect the country’s economy? Against the background of extremely uneasy and tense relations with Putin’s Russia, how do the Georgian government and civil society feel about the presence of so many Russians on Georgian territory, Mamuka? Refugees from Ukraine have also come to Georgia. Aleksandr, is the presence of Ukrainians felt in your circles? The Georgian border service has denied entry to the country to several Russian citizens who are critical of Putin’s regime, such as Mikhail Fishman, journalist, presenter and analyst of TV Dozhd, and others. What is the explanation for this, Mamuka? What is the position of the country’s ruling party, the ‘Georgian Dream’, towards today’s Russia? How does it differ from the position of activists in civil society? Aleksandr, how did you in Georgia perceive the new flow of Russian immigrants, which began immediately after the announcement of mobilization on 22 October? Do you feel a difference in the motivation and goals of the first wave compared to the second? Has the war with Ukraine given rise to new anxieties on the part of Russia in Georgia, Mamuka? How do Russians in Georgia see their future? Have some already returned to Russia? How do you personally see your future, Aleksandr?

Welcome to the thirteenth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas.  My guest today is Lev Aleksandrovich Ponomarev. Lev Ponomarev trained and worked as a physicist in the USSR before devoting more time and energy to issues of human rights in the Soviet Union and subsequently in the Russian Federation. He was one of the founders of  « Memorial » in 1988, and soon became one of the foremost figures  in human rights in Russia. In the dying days of perestroika, Lev Ponomarev went into politics and in 1990 co-founded the opposition movement « Democratic Russia ». He was a People’s Deputy at the end of the Soviet era and a deputy of the first convocation of the State Duma in the new Russia after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. In 1997 he founded the not-for-profit « For Human Rights » and in 2007 he set up the « Foundation in Defence of Prisoners’ Rights ». He was a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group from 1996 until its closure last year. In 2019 his organisation « For Human Rights » was shut down by the authorities. On December 28, 2020, Lev Ponomarev’s name was in the first list of individuals designated as ‘media foreign agents’ by the Russian Justice Ministry. The recording was made on 22 December 2023. You can also listen to the podcast on our website, or on SoundCloud, Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Anchor and YouTube.  My questions include: Lev Aleksandrovich, where were you when you learned that Russia had launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine? Do you remember how you felt at that moment? If I’m not mistaken, you now live in Paris. Could you tell me how this came about? Your NGO « For Human Rights » was closed down in 2019 and a year later you yourself became a “Media – Foreign Agent”. How did you feel when all this was happening and why did the authorities do this? You have always been someone who warned about the dangerous developments of the Putin regime. Do you think you had insights that others did not? Does everyone agree with you now? What do you think was Boris Yeltsin’s biggest mistake? Presidential elections are scheduled for next March – although we already know that they will not be “free and fair”. What do you think civil society should do in the run-up to the election – and during the election itself? To what extent do people in emigration perceive things differently from those who stayed in Russia? Is this difference noticeable to you? How do you think it affects relations between those who have left Russia and those who remained? It is hard not to be pessimistic about human rights in the near future, not least because Russia’s war against Ukraine is still ongoing.  But in the longer term, are there grounds for optimism?

My guest today is Natalya Zyagina, head of the Moscow branch of Amnesty International shut down by the Russian authorities in 2022. Natalya Zvyagina has a long record as a Russian human rights activist. She is originally from the city of Voronezh, where she worked for many years in the Interregional Human Rights Group. Natalya has also worked at the Institute for Law and Public Policy, a non-profit organization based in Moscow, and at the Russian branch of Transparency International. This recording was made on 30 November 2023. In addition to our website, you can also listen to the podcast on SoundCloud, Podcasts.com, Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Anchor and YouTube.  My questions include: First of all, please tell us about your work in Voronezh. What prompted you to become involved in human rights work? In the 1990s Voronezh became one of the main centres of human rights activity in Russia, and many of Russia’s leading human rights defenders come from there. What do you attribute this to? In 2018, you took up the post of head of Amnesty International’s Moscow office. What were your expectations at that time? What was Amnesty’s role in Russia at that time? How did the Russian human rights community feel about the organisation? Looking back, how do you assess the change in the status of Aleksei Navalny, whose recognition as a prisoner of conscience was removed for a while, although now he is again recognised as such? And how important is Amnesty’s classification of people as “prisoners of conscience” for the Russian public and human rights community in general? In March 2022, the Russian media regulator blocked access to Amnesty International’s Russian-language website. What impact did this decision have on your work? In April of the same year Russian authorities removed the Amnesty’s registration as a representative office in Moscow. In addition to Amnesty’s office, the Russian Ministry of Justice closed the offices of 15 representative offices of foreign NGOs and foundations, including Human Rights Watch, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Heinrich Böll, Friedrich Naumann, Friedrich Ebert, and other organizations. The Justice Ministry said at the time that this was done “in connection with revealed violations of Russian law.” What was all this in fact about? At the time, Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, said that Amnesty would continue its work to document and expose human rights abuses in Russia despite the office closure. How easy was it for Amnesty to continue its work without a Moscow office? What has been your personal situation and that of other staff members since then? Where were you when Russia invaded Ukraine? Did the invasion of Ukraine come as a shock to you? Are the current extreme measures against human rights in Russia a result of the war? Or have the policies of the Putin regime been moving in this repressive direction anyway? After all these events, a new conflict has erupted in the Middle East. Has this had any impact on your work at Amnesty? How do you assess the events in Dagestan in relation to the war in the Middle East? Many human rights defenders have left Russia. What is life like for those who have remained in the country? Can they do any meaningful work at all? Recently, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs drafted a bill that would require foreigners visiting Russia to declare their “loyalty” to the Russian authorities. What does this mean? How do you see the future of human rights work in Russia?

My guests today are two Parisians, Aleksandra Ilkhovskaya and Svetlana Dokudovskaya: Aleksandra [known to everyone as “Sanya]” has lived in Paris since she was six years old – her mother emigrated from Russia in 1991. She is married with two daughters. She is a primary school teacher with 10 years’ experience. Svetlana has lived with her French husband and their 13-year-old daughter in Paris for the past 17 years. She works as a cell biologist at the Gustave Roussy Institute, Europe’s largest cancer research centre. Both their lives changed after February 24th 2022. This recording was made on 22 September 2023. My questions include: What were your thoughts and feelings when you woke up last February 24th? Why did you decide you needed to take action? And how? When did you first arrive at the train station and what did you find there? You obviously helped the people there a great deal, but what did you get out of the experience, what did you learn or discover about yourselves? Sveta, with Sanya’s help, you published a book called “Operation Montparnasse”. It contains the stories of refugees and also the stories of your fellow Russian volunteers/translators. What would you say is the particular importance of the book for you?  And for your readers?

My guest today is the author Maxim Osipov.  Following in the great Russian tradition of Chekhov and Bulgakov, he has pursued a career in medicine in parallel with that of a writer.  For his works of fiction – for the most part short stories that are sharp and witty commentaries on modern-day life in the Russian provinces – Maxim Osipov has won a number of literary prizes, and his plays have been staged as well as broadcast on the radio in Russia. Osipov’s works have been translated into 18 languages. His books published in English include the collections of short stories Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Stories and Kilometer 101 (see my review in Rights in Russia from earlier this year). Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Maxim Osipov signed several letters condemning Putin’s military operation.. He left Russia on 4 March 2023 and now lives in the Netherlands where he has launched a new quarterly literary journal,  The Fifth Wave.  This recording was made on 11 August 2023. My questions: You left Russia almost immediately after the Russian army invaded Ukraine. How did you come to take such a decision? How difficult was it for you? Before you left Russia you successfully combined the professions of cardiologist in Tarusa with that of a writer of short stories and other works of literature. How did these two roles complement one another? Do the current policies of Putin’s Russia allow you to be a writer? What is the duty or role of a Russian writer in today’s situation? What’s your reaction when accusations of imperialism and ‘colonial thinking’ are made against some of the classics of Russian literature? To what extent are they justified? Do you see attempts outside Russia to cancel Russian culture, as is claimed by Russian propaganda? In justifying the invasion of Ukraine, Putin set out his interpretation of history, claiming that Ukraine belongs to the ‘Russian world.’ To what extent does such use of history as justification have a place in the contemporary world? You have recently begun publication of a new journal. Tell us about it and your aims and aspirations for it. You have named your magazine The Fifth Wave. You wrote earlier that this wave of emigration is most similar to the first wave after 1917. What did you have in mind? Do you continue to write fiction in emigration? You no longer practice as a doctor, so where do you get your material from? How do you find life in emigration? Are there circumstances under which you would return to Russia?

Welcome to the ninth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas.  My guest today is Tetyana Sokolova, a professional midwife of 40 years at Mariupol Maternity Hospital No. 2, on the left bank of Mariupol near Azovstal, the industrial plant that became a centre of resistance against the Russian invaders.  On 9 March, the city’s Maternity Hospital No. 3 was bombed by Russian aircraft and the whole world watched with horror pictures of the destroyed building and Ukrainian soldiers’ desperate attempts to save the life of a pregnant woman, as she lay on a stretcher among the ruins. Three pregnant women from the rubble of Maternity Hospital No. 3 were brought to Tetyana and her team of midwives,  For her work, her resilience and her bravery under the most difficult of conditions, Tetyana was awarded the international Anna Politkovskaya prize, named in honour of the murdered journalist. My questions 1.  Where were you when you realised that Russia had invaded Ukraine? What was your reaction and what were your first thoughts? 2.  You went to work on 2 March.  Did you waver at all in your decision?  After all, it was less than a week since the war had started.  What made you to go to work that day? 3.  Tell us about the events of 9 March and how they impacted you personally. 4.  You have worked in Mariupol all your professional life - what made you become a midwife? 5. Could you ever have imagined that you would be an eyewitness to alleged war crimes? 6. How did you escape from Mariupol? 7. Where do you live now? 8. Do you cherish hopes of returning to Mariupol one day?  10.  Were you surprised to be awarded the Anna Politkovskaya prize? Did you know about her before?

Welcome to the eighth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas.   As a rule,  guests on our podcast are individuals for whom 24th February 2022 was a turning-point in their life; today we are talking about an organisation that came into being as a result of that fateful date. The Reckoning Project was created in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the aim of gathering evidence of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. To this end, The Reckoning Project has brought together a team of international advisers – human rights experts, historians, lawyers and politicians. And on the front line, so to speak, is a team of journalists led by our guest today, Nataliya Gumenyuk. They are the foot soldiers on the ground who gather testimony about Russia’s war crimes from Ukrainian eyewitnesses. This recording was made on 22 June 2023 My questions include: Could you ever have imagined doing what you do  today? What was the journey that led to your present occupation? What exactly was the impetus behind the creation of The Reckoning Project? What role do the lawyers play in your work? Have they had an impact on your team’s journalistic practice?  What kind of interaction is there between lawyers and journalists on the team? Tell us about your work with Ukrainian children – after all, their deportation to Russia is classified as a war crime under international law. How did your team gather testimonials from people who were victims of the recent catastrophe at the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric dam? Are you confident that your work will be of use to in the future? In what way? See also this story on the deportation of children from Mariuopol: Iryna Lopatina [via thereckoningproject.com], ‘“Dad, You Have to Come—Or We Will Be Adopted!”: One Ukrainian Family’s Harrowing Wartime Saga,’ Vanity Fair, 6 October 2022

Welcome to the seventh episode of our new Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. In recent weeks, politically motivated trials and lengthy prison terms in Putin’s Russia reached a new peak. Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment for treason and Evgenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriichuk have been remanded in custody awaiting trial for “justifying terrorism” in connection with the staging of a play. Some say these developments signify a return to the USSR of the 1970s, others that it is reminiscent of Stalinist purges. Our guest today, Boris Kuznetsov, is a lawyer who played a key role in the first high profile trial of Putin’s presidency – he defended the interests of relatives of the sailors who died on the Kursk nuclear submarine, which sank in 2000. We invited him to share with us his experiences of the Kursk case in particular, and more widely his observations and reflections on the legal system and practice of jurisprudence in Putin’s Russia. The recording was made on 1 June 2023.

Welcome to the sixth episode of our new Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. Whilst our podcast is mostly about people for whom February 24th 2022 was a turning-point in their lives, the subject of today’s conversation is the country, whose leadership caused that date to be so significant in all our lives. We are talking, of course, about Russia. To lead us to an understanding of just how fateful a date 24th February 2022 may be for Russia itself, we talked to Dmitry Oreshkin, someone who has devoted many years to  detailed observation of the political, economic, and social life of the country. Let him be our guide as we discuss present-day Russia and the likely future of the Russian Federation. This recording took place on May 11th 2023 You can also listen to the podcast on our website, SoundCloud, Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Anchor and YouTube.  My questions include: How long have you known that Putin had imperial ambitions in relation to Ukraine? Where did these ambitions come from? After Russia invaded Ukraine, you decided to leave the country. What was your main argument for your decision? How do you assess the current wave of Russian emigration? How does it compare to previous Russian emigrations? How might this influence the country’s future development? What do you think prompted the general mobilization that took place last autumn? What consequences has it had? Immediately after its was announced, a large number of men of conscription age left Russia. Do you see this as a demographic crisis?  Can you comment on the annual Victory Day celebrations in Moscow and other Russian cities? What can does it tell us about the state of the Russian army – about its losses, about the criticism we hear about the Defence Ministry from numerous private military groups and so on? Under what circumstances could the war against Ukraine be brought to an end? What will happen after Putin? Do you think he will be overthrown? Will he die peacefully in his bed?