Kateryna Vologzheninova, a resident of Yekaterinburg, Russia, has been accused of collaborating with the Right Sector (Ukrainian nationalist group — Ed.) because she had viewed and reposted information from Ukrainian internet sites.
A criminal case against the woman, accusing her of reposting internet sites, was opened in January 2015, reports Espreso TV, citing Novyi Rehion. She was charged under Article 282 of Russia’s Criminal Code (incitement of hatred or enmity and debasement of human dignity).
Vologzheninova’s only “crime” was reposting Ukrainian video clips about the Euromaidan revolution and the war in the Donbas in the VKontake social network and subscribing to UNSO (Ukrainian National Self-Defense) and Right Sector sites, which gave her access to the news feed of these groups. Investigators have also attempted to accuse her of membership in the Right Sector.
Vologzheninova claims violations have been committed during the search of her apartment. Investigators, who came to her home pretending to be representatives of her internet provider, brought with them witnesses who, instead of observing the search, began to rummage through her belongings. At the end of the search, she was not given any documents, no list of seized items or minutes of the interrogation and no explanation of her rights, including the right to counsel, she says.
Recently her friends posted a video in which she recounted what happened. “The investigator told my mother, that I shouldn’t have written or posted anything. He said these discussions should only take place in the kitchen,” she explained.
Currently the criminal case against Vologzheninova is moving to the next stage. Police have turned over materials found on her page in the social network to linguistic expertise.
According to Vologzheninova, she became bored with the “orgy of hate” on Russian TV channels and decided to learn the truth about events in Ukraine and to read alternative information, for which she has paid a price.
“I myself heard plenty insults from my co-workers. The level of xenophobia is simply astounding,” she said.
“Russians have been taught to view Ukrainians as inferior, as sub-humans who do not deserve their own state. This view can be transferred to other nations as well, to the entire world. Hitler also began with the thesis that other nations are inferior. It appears that our (Russian) ideology is also fascist if we consider some people subhuman,” she concludes.
However, Vologzheninova is convinced that every nation has something unique and distinctive and that it is unacceptable for one nation to feel superior to another. Furthermore, she says she is frightened by the restoration of Stalinism and Russia’s imperial ambitions, the justification of the Great Terror, and other manifestations of Russian ideology.
