Week-ending 31 January 2020
Anna Dvornichenko: ‘Obtaining refugee status is simpler here. As proof, I submitted documents about the attacks and the decision to refuse to open a criminal case [against the attackers]. […] I feel more in peace in a foreign country whose language I don’t know and where I have no relatives or friends than [I’ve felt] in the past six months.
Source:
Russian LGBT Activist Receives Dutch Asylum After Police Threats
An LGBT activist fled southern Russia for the Netherlands after facing threats of prosecution from law enforcement and retribution from conservative vigilantes, she said in an interview Tuesday. Anna Dvornichenko has said that authorities in the city of Rostov-on-Don refused to investigate two attacks — one with pepper spray and another with a smoke bomb — against her that took place in the same week last summer. Instead, Dvornichenko said anti-extremism officers had threatened to prosecute her for her activism. The Moscow Times, 30 January 2020
