Fleeing Russia in search of freedomーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
more than two years after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine the Kremlin moved to silence protests against the war and clamp down on Free Speech has become stricter than ever this has taken such deep root in daily life that ordinary people have begun monitoring each other the experience of one young woman spotlights the situation inside Russia Alesia Cova lives in a town in the north of Norway she’s Russian in March last year she fled her Homeland two years ago as a 19-year-old college student she was arrested because of comments she posted on social media I thought it was the only legal way to express my opposition to the war was not a big deal just a post on my social media those comments were about the bombing of the Crimean bridge for which Ukraine has admitted its involvement in her post she wrote that she could understand why Ukraine did it the authorities deemed her post a justification of terrorism she was arrested put on trial and placed under house arrest Russia has gone crazy I’m not an activist I just posted on social media olesia says fabricated evidence was presented at the trial that she had purchased a train ticket and was aiming to flee the country she faced a prison term of up to 10 years the government can do anything if they wanted to they could put me in jail kill me hurt my family I knew I had to escape straight away by any means possible as I wouldn’t have another chance with help from a human rights organization Alesia removed the monitoring device placed on her by the authority having evaded surveillance she fled to Lithuania during her Escape she wore a disguise and changed the SIM card on her phone repeatedly for about three months I couldn’t believe I was actually free but of course once I could really feel that I had done it that I had won and was really safe I began enjoying life [Music] again how did one student’s post come to the attention of the authorities her College classmates reported her this is an exchange among alesia’s classmates that came to light during the process of her trial [Music] the situation in Russia these days makes it very difficult to express opposition to the war some people say it’s so repressive now that people have begun surveilling each other my classmates did that to make Russia what they wanted it to be a human rights organization in Russia says that over the last 2 years more than 960 people have been prosecuted for expressing opposition to The Invasion it says many are ordinary citizens and the penalties are getting harsher previously we were speaking about 15 days now you can face 15 years in prison and that is really brutal for just going to a protest or for just writing something on your social media recently olesia’s family also fled and joined her in Norway the 3 months when Alesia was under house arrest were the worst days of my life there’s no freedom of speech whatsoever in Russia the proof of this is that so many people are being thrown into prison for posting online Alesia has been invited to work on a Norwegian newspaper I will make some interview but it’s will my own s she’s writing articles about human rights issues in Russia but when she contacts people there she’s noticed they are increasingly reluctant to talk I feel like the repression is growing in both scale and severity you could say and it’s getting harder for people to speak out three of her co-workers are Russians who also fled the country due to the danger facing journalists the newspaper is based in a town near the Russian border and also has readers inside Russia we decided that it was uh um a good way for us to to strengthen our coverage of the war and and of the situation in Russia to hire some of these people the biggest threat to Mr Putin and to the Russian regime of today is independent journalists and independent journalism Alesia says she intends to carry on reporting on the oppression in Russia that tattoo on her leg is an ironical statement on her attitude toward President Putin this is the ugliest thing and it scored into my body be near the Russian norian border sometimes Alesia visits areas near the frontier to report on what’s happening on the Russian side I now have freedom freedom is the most important thing it’s Irreplaceable I have lost all sense of my homeland no matter how much I hated Russia I’m accustomed to everything there Alesia is now on the Russian government’s Wanted list of terrorists and extremists that’s the same description it uses for the Islamic State militant group or Al-Qaeda since the invasion of Ukraine the Kremlin has passed a series of laws curtailing freedom of speech specifically the laws stipulate punishments for what it calls discrediting the Russian military they also permit the extrajudicial closure of media Outlets found to have published fake news or blatant disrespect for the state Alesia was found to be in violation of the first law the reporter who covered the story says people in Russia are extremely wary of being interviewed by Foreign media and most of them refuse to speak those that do agree make their statements very carefully to avoid becoming a target for the authorities
More than two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Kremlin is clamping down further on free speech and ordinary people have begun monitoring each other. We meet one young woman who fled Russia to find freedom. #politics #europe #russia #ukraine
More stories on war in Ukraine: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/tags/110/
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