Mothers of political prisoners about money from Navalny: ″ unexpected and pleasant ″ | Russia and Russians: A View from Europe | DW

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Opposition politician Alexei Navalny announced on September 3 that he intends to divide the money part of the Boris Nemtsov Prize awarded to him in the amount of 10 thousand euros between the families of four political prisoners in Russia. One of them is Rostov activist Vladislav Mordasov, who was sentenced in October 2019 to six years and seven months in a maximum security colony after going to a picket in support of the residents of Rostov-on-Don, who suffered from a severe fire in the summer of 2017. Another young Rostovite, Yan Sidorov, was sentenced in the same case to 6.5 years in prison. By decision of Navalny, Yan’s family will also receive part of the prize awarded to him.

In December 2019, the Rostov Regional Court upheld the sentences of Mordasov and Sidorov unchanged, but in July 2020, the Russian Supreme Court reduced the sentences for both activists to four years. Thus, at the beginning of November 2021, they will have to be released. At the time of his arrest in November 2017, Yan Sidorov was 18 years old, and Vladislav Mordasov was 21 years old.

Vlad and Yana’s mothers – Marina Mordasova and Nadezhda Sidorova – told DW by phone how they took the unexpected news and what their sons were going to do after their release.

Alexey Navalny in custody

According to Marina Mordasova, Vlad himself informed her that their family would receive 2.5 thousand euros from Alexei Navalny by calling on September 3 from the colony IK-9 in Shakhty, where he is serving his sentence. “He, of course, stunned me. It was very unexpected and very pleasant,” shares Vlad’s mother. “Now Alexei Navalny is in such a position that he probably needs this money most of all. But it turns out that he thinks about our guys. It is so pleasant and unexpected that there are simply no words,” she continues.

Is it dangerous to receive money from Navalny?

Mom Yana Sidorova phoned DW from the colony where Vlad Mordasov is serving his sentence.

For about a year now, she has been collaborating with the human rights project Open Space, trying to help families in a situation similar to her own. She cannot regularly visit her son Yan: after all, he is serving a sentence in IK-10 in the city of Dimitrograd in the Ulyanovsk region, 1,500 km from home.

Nadezhda Sidorova learned that Alexei Navalny decided to share the prize with her son from fellow human rights activists who called her when she was on her way to the colony, and was very surprised. She doesn’t know anything about Jan’s reaction yet. Perhaps she will be able to discuss the news with him during a telephone conversation in the evening, she says.

Nadezhda is not afraid to accept money from Alexei Navalny, whom the Russian authorities associate with organizations recognized as “extremist” in Russia. “Formally, this money will be transferred to us by the Boris Nemtsov Foundation, but it has not yet been banned in Russia,” she explains.

Personal meeting with Navalny

From the point of view of the international human rights organization Amnesty International, Vlad Mordasov and Yan Sidorov are “prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely for the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.” AI assigned this status to Alexei Navalny twice – in January 2021, after the politician was detained at the Sheremetyevo airport upon his return from Germany, where he was being treated for poisoning him in Russia with a chemical agent of the Novichok family, and in May 2021, when the organization made a decision return this previously revoked status to him.

Marina Mordasova does not exclude that someday Vlad will be able to meet with Navalny in person to thank him for this gesture.

Life of Vlad Mordasov in the colony

According to Mordasova, her son is looking forward to release: “the less there is, the harder it is to wait.” Vlad is doing well, his morale is not falling, the only “unpleasant moment” is regular searches, during which prisoners are taken away from prisoners “inappropriate” things they bought with their personal funds: refrigerators, stoves and even benches.

According to Marina Mordasova, after leaving prison, her son is going to return to work, but for now he reads a lot: various textbooks, as well as literature on economics and political science. He is still interested in the political situation in the country, notes Vlad’s mother.

On what the family will spend the money received, Marina Mordasova does not yet know. “Vlad and I haven’t talked about this yet, because he will decide,” she says.

Preventive punishment in the colony

As for Yan Sidorov, who is also due to be released in November, according to his mother, the first thing he will do after leaving prison is to undergo a full medical examination and do an MRI. For all four years in prison, he suffered from severe headaches. Nadezhda Sidorova suggests that they were the result of beatings, which, according to her, Yan was subjected to in the first days after the arrest, “when he was forced to confess.”

There were no beatings in the prison, but there were unreasonable punishments, Nadezhda continues. For example, ten days in a punishment cell for the fact that Yang was dressed out of uniform – in sweatpants. Jan’s mother believes that in this way they wanted to make her son understand that he should not once again try to apply for parole.

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