Prisoner Nadezhda Rossinskaya will not be able to receive parcels because of an unknown person who brought her 30 liters of water

The defense of volunteer Nadezhda Rossinskaya, accused of financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced pressure on the arrested person. Unknown people gave her 30 liters of water to the pre-trial detention center. According to the defense, because of this, the monthly limit on transfers has been exhausted, and the girl’s relatives cannot transfer food and things to her. Human rights activists confirm that this situation does not formally violate the law. They advise those arrested to refuse suspicious transfers and parcels in writing and to send a list of trusted senders to the administration of the pre-trial detention center.

Belgorod resident Nadezhda Rossinskaya (also known under the online pseudonym Nadine Geisler) has been involved in animal protection for several years. In March 2022, she went to the city square in blue and yellow clothes and began handing out flower seedlings to passersby; the girl was fined 15 thousand rubles. according to the “meeting” part 5 of Art. 20.2 of the Administrative Code, but cassation overturned this decision. Later, Mrs. Rossinskaya organized the volunteer movement “Army of Beauties.” “Beauties” carried humanitarian aid to civilians in that part of the Kharkov region that was controlled by Russian troops, and also helped refugees leave the combat zone. In August 2022, Ukrainian media accused Ms. Rossinskaya of collaborating with Russian intelligence services.

In the spring of 2023, Ms. Rossinskaya left for Georgia, claiming threats and the “prospect of arrest.” In an interview with 7×7 (included in the register of foreign agents), she said that the police began to frequently come to the “Beauties” humanitarian aid warehouse, and some volunteers noticed that they were being followed. And one of the donors, according to Ms. Rossinskaya, was interrogated over a money transfer to “Beauties” in the context of the possible use of these funds to finance the Ukrainian army.

However, a year later the girl tried to return to Russia. On February 1, 2024, she was detained and accused of “public calls for activities directed against the security of the state” (clause “c” of Part 2 of Article 280.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to six years in prison). The next day, a court hearing was held regarding the suppression; It turned out that the FSB department for the Belgorod region opened a case on January 31. According to investigators, on August 31, 2023, Nadezhda Rossinskaya published on Instagram (owned by the Meta corporation, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) an appeal to donate money to the Ukrainian Azov battalion (recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and banned) and indicated her account.

The Belgorod publication “Fonar” reported: at the meeting, Ms. Rossinskaya stated that she had nothing to do with the Instagram account that was mentioned by the investigation. She also stated that she had never provided assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and that she had repeatedly received threats from Ukrainian citizens who were dissatisfied with trips to territories controlled by the Russian military. “From the very beginning of the Northern Military District to this day, this side (Ukrainian— “Kommersant”) tried in various ways to intimidate me and push me away from volunteering,” said Ms. Rossinskaya. The defense suggested that the volunteer’s ill-wishers created an Instagram account and indicated her account in the publication. “Does the investigation have evidence that money was transferred from this account to the Ukrainian Armed Forces?” — lawyer Evgeniy Rudychev asked, noting that the controversial publication was made in Ukrainian, which the volunteer does not speak. He also added that his client was raising funds for the Russian army; the accused herself added: “Everyone saw me with the Russian military.” Nevertheless, the court arrested Nadezhda Rossinskaya for two months.

This week, lawyer Alexey Pryanishnikov, who is coordinating the volunteer’s defense, said that an unknown person gave her 30 liters of water to the detention center. “Thus, the monthly transfer limit was exhausted. As a result, Nadezhda’s parents were unable to give her the necessary things, food and hygiene items,” said Mr. Pryanishnikov. “I consider this an attempt to pressure. The goal is to change Nadezhda’s position on the case. This, although not very common, is a known practice used in politically motivated cases.”

“The practice of exhausting the transfer limit in this way does occur, but very rarely,” confirmed Alexei Melnikov, secretary of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission and member of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, in an interview with Kommersant. “Products and things received “through the window” are taken into account in limit of 30 kg per name of the person held in the institution. She, of course, could refuse this transfer – the internal regulations include a rule that the transfer is returned to the visitor if there is a written refusal of the suspect or accused.” Let us add that Kommersant’s interlocutors surrounded by the activist suggest that she did not know about the weight restrictions and therefore signed for receiving a package from an unknown person. “As our practice confirms, the only option to avoid this is a written statement from the suspect or accused that transfers “through the window” will be accepted only from relatives, a lawyer or a specific person,” said Mr. Melnikov.

“Formally, in this situation, everything is according to the law and there are no violations – after all, a person could refuse such a transfer in writing,” confirms the representative of Sitting Rus’ (included in the register of foreign agents) Kirill Mikhailov. “However, the limit of 30 kg per month applies only to transfers and does not apply to parcels. Moreover, the law does not establish limits on the number of parcels, but the weight of each individual parcel should not exceed the norms established by postal rules. I would advise Ms. Rossinskaya’s parents to come to the post office serving the pre-trial detention center where their daughter is being held and send the parcel from there. This will be the fastest way to transfer everything you need.”

Alexey Pryanishnikov told Kommersant that the volunteer’s lawyers submitted an application to the head of the pre-trial detention center about the need to cancel the transfer of 30 liters of water. They also notified the FSB officer investigating the criminal case about the incident. If there is no response from the management of the pre-trial detention center, the defense is ready to appeal the transfer in court, Mr. Pryanishnikov said. We would like to add that today, February 9, the Belgorod Regional Court is scheduled to consider an appeal against the arrest of Nadezhda Rossinskaya.

Sergey Tolmachev, Voronezh; Alexander Chernykh