29 July 2024
Welcome to the twenty-first edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas.
My guest today is Nadezhda Skochilenko. On 16 November 2023, Vasileostrovsky district court in St. Petersburg sentenced her daughter, Aleksandra Skochilenko, to seven years in a general regime penal colony. Sasha Skochilenko’s ‘crime’ was committed about a month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and consisted in the substitution by Sasha of price labels in a Perekrestok supermarket with short anti-war texts. It was a small subversive act by a witty and talented artist. But the aftermath changed both her own and her mother’s lives.
This podcast was recorded on 25 July 2024. Shortly after it was recorded, relatives, supporters, and lawyers of Sasha Skochilenko said they had learned she had been unexpectedly transferred to an unidentified penitentiary in Moscow.
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My questions include:
1. Were you aware that Sasha was going to replace the price labels in the supermarket? Or did you find out about it later?
2. Did it surprise you? How did you react?
3 I remember seeing pictures of these new price labels by Sasha on Facebook, and being amazed by the subtlety of the idea and its execution – you had to look pretty closely to realize that the labels had completely different texts from the usual ones. The font, the format, the size – everything had been carefully copied but with added facts about the victims of the Special Military Operation. Did she imagine then what consequences it could lead to? And did you realize the danger of what she was doing?
4. Tell us about Sasha – what kind of person is she and what was she like as a child? I understand that she’s a talented musician and artist. How did you bring her up?
5. You now live in France. Had you previously thought of leaving Russia, or was it because of Sasha’s arrest?
6. Sasha was kept in prison for more than 19 months before her trial. What were conditions like for her and how did she cope? Did it affect her health?
7. Seven years in prison for such a ‘crime’ – at the time this seemed unimaginably severe.. Was it a surprise to Sasha? And to you?
8. What can you do to help her from outside Russia?
9. Various organizations, including Rights in Russia, encourage people to write letters to political prisoners in Russia. Does Sasha receive such letters? What do they mean to her?
10. Where possible, do you try to disseminate information in the West about other political prisoners in Russia? Do you think the West does enough to support them and intercede on their behalf?
11. Does the fact that both Amnesty International and Memorial have recognized Sasha as a prisoner of conscience and a political prisoner, and demand her immediate and unconditional release, have any impact on her fate?
12. How do you see the future for Sasha? And for yourself?
