OVD-Info Dissident Digest #93 23 April 2025‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

#93

23 APRIL 2025

EXPLAINING THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN RUSSIA

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Hello and welcome back to the Digest.

Today we are discussing the repulsive topic of body horror inflicted on Russian political prisoners. It’s not a cheery topic but it’s an important one to those wanting to understand the reality on the ground.

As always, feel free to reach out to Dan.storyev@ovdinfo.org with questions or concerns.

In solidarity,

Dan Storyev

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Trigger warning:
This is a newsletter about Russian repressions. Sometimes it will be hard to read.

The world of shit

When people talk about political prisoners they like to focus on the heroic and transcendental. On writings, hunger strikes and the valiant struggle of a dissident’s iron will and clear mind against a tyrannical government. But behind the stories of heroism we ignore the mundane and the corporeal. Russian jail, with its heinous conditions, tortures — sometimes through neglect rather than purpose — in the most undignified ways.

The jailers turn the lives of prisoners into hell, while the instincts of journalists and writers are to look past the indignities and focus on the more honourable aspects of prison life. Today I would like to turn your gaze to precisely these less-than-glamourous aspects of prison repression and show you the depravity of mundane bodily horror unleashed by Kremlin’s jailers on their victims.

Server Zekiryaev / Photo: Crimean Solidarity

Server Zekiryaev is a Crimean Tatar. Before being jailed in 2020 he was a gym teacher and a gardener. Russian occupation authorities jailed him for allegedly participating in Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist party that became a favourite scapegoat for Russian security services.

If you would like to learn more about how the Kremlin uses all the tools at its disposal to strangle Crimea, read our piece:

READ ARTICLE

Zekiryaev was sentenced to 13 years in maximum security prison. In prison he faced torturous conditions detrimental to his health. Since August his lymphatic nodes have been swollen, he can barely breathe and is prone to vomiting. The reason is that his cell is situated close to essentially open sewage, and Server has been breathing the miasmas of prison wastewater since his imprisonment. The court dismissed Server’s official complaint.

The unsanitary conditions in Russian jails lead to more severe harm as well. Yaroslav Shirshikov is a PR specialist from the major Urals city of Yekaterinburg. He was jailed in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 for 5 years for a post supposedly celebrating the death of Vladlen Tatarsky. The latter is a Russian war propagandist who was killed by Ukrainian Security Services via entrapment of a young woman who delivered a bomb disguised as a statuette of Tatarsky to the propagandist’s public event. The woman, Daría Trepova, is now in jail. She claims that she didn’t know that the statuette was rigged to explode.

Yaroslav Shirshikov / Photo: Yaroslav Shirshikov’s Telegram channel

When Yaroslav was jailed he already had an issue with his left eye which he damaged early in his youth.

In 2024 he accidentally hit his eye with a towel while in pre-trial detention. A few months later, the jail had a burst pipe — and the facility was flooded with urine. The ensuing vapours caused conjunctivitis. By spring doctors removed the eye entirely. Yaroslav remains optimistic. His letters are peppered with smileys and sarcasm. “I am sure I will leave this prison,” he wrote about the surgery, “just not whole.”

Prison medicine is not always done in prison, but it is always done on the cheap. Teeth aren’t treated but simply removed whenever a prisoner has a dental problem.

Alexander Martynov / Photo: social media

Alexander Martynov is a retiree serving a 6.5 year term for drawing anti-war graffiti like “peace for Ukraine” in 2022. He has been behind bars since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

Read more about Alexander in our profile:

READ ARTICLE

Before his arrest, Alexander was wearing temporary dentures which were supposed to be replaced by proper ones. However, after he was jailed he never got the chance to put in the replacement. The prison where Alexander is held is equipped with a dentist’s room — it has a chair, a lamp, a drill and an x-ray. There is no anaesthesia or filling materials. It takes months to get an appointment. Eventually, Alexander lost all his teeth. To get proper dentures he needs to be treated at a civilian clinic, but the prison authorities have yet to allow it.