Write to Russia

“I did not commit any crimes, and I refused to admit to someone else’s guilt,” – Viktoria Serhieieva [source: Pervy Otdel, 11 May 2026]

Viktoria Serhieieva was detained at Sochi airport on 21 August 2025 after returning from Ukraine. Russian authorities claim they found evidence of money transfers to Ukraine on her phone and later charged her with treason under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code.

Human rights groups say she spent almost five months in isolation without proper legal access and was pressured into signing statements she later withdrew.

Memorial argues the case is politically motivated and linked to Russia’s broader crackdown on people accused of supporting Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. The organisation also notes that Sergeeva is originally from occupied Crimea, where many residents were effectively forced to take Russian citizenship after the 2014 annexation.

In its statement, Memorial said the prosecution of Serhieieva is “especially absurd and cynical,” given the circumstances under which Crimean residents were assigned Russian citizenship.

‘Victoria Serhieieva is the latest of a number of Ukrainian citizens effectively abducted and held on fabricated pretexts while the FSB concocted surreal “treason” charges’

– Human Rights in Ukraine [website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group]

Source: Halya Coynash, ’55-year-old Crimean seized at Russian airport and tortured to fabricate treason charges over donations to Ukraine,’ Human Rights in Ukraine, 18 May 2026

‘The independent human rights project ‘Political Prisoners. Memorial,’ which continues the work of the Memorial Human Rights Centre’s Programme for the Support of Political Prisoners, in accordance with the international guidelines on the definition of the term “political prisoner”, finds that the criminal case against Viktoria Serhieieva is politically motivated and aimed at consolidating and retaining power by those in authority. Her detention was imposed in violation of her right to a fair trial and other rights and freedoms guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

– Memorial 

Source: ‘Sergeeva Viktoriya Vladimirovna,’ Political Prisoners, Memorial, 13 May 2026

‘Serhieieva spent almost five months in complete isolation. It appears she was held in custody under Vladimir Putin’s “decision” of 8 March 2022, which allows security forces to place people in remand prisons without trial, in violation of Article 22 of the Russian Constitution. Pervy Otdel [‘First Department’] discovered information about this decision in a document from the Investigative Committee in the spring of 2026. According to this document, the FSB placed a Russian citizen in a remand prison, citing the “decision of the President of the Russian Federation of 08.03.2022 on the organisation of the reception and accommodation of persons opposing the special military operation”. It was only on 28 January 2026 that Viktoria Serhieieva was brought to Krasnodar — and there, for the first time, she was officially informed of the criminal case under Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. By this point, she writes, after months of confessions made under pressure, threats against her children and constant fear, she had decided to retract her previous statements. Serhieieva asks that her story be shared with as many people as possible. She wants an investigation into what happened to her after she left Sochi airport, as well as to find out who made the money transfers from her phone and how’

– Pervy Otdel

Source: ‘You’ll be stuck here for years to come’: the story of a Ukrainian woman who went missing at Sochi Airport and was found in a remand prison in Borisoglebsk where torture is endemic,’ Pervy Otdel, 11 May 2026

Write to Viktoria Serhieieva

The Russian penal system does not allow any messages to prisoners that are written in foreign languages, but Write to Russia is here to help you. To show your support for Viktoria Serhieieva, please send your letter as an email to us at: le******************@********il.com. We’ll translate your letter into Russian and, depending on your request, either mail the translated letters on your behalf to Viktoria Serhieieva, or return the letters to you by email for posting in an envelope with addresses written in Russian. If we send the letter on your behalf, we ask that you compensate us for the cost of postage from the UK (currently £3.60 [$4.89; €4.17] for one letter). For suggestions on what to write to a political prisoner, click here. To learn more about our letter writing project, click here: Write to Russia.

You can write to Viktoria Serhieieva at the following address:

Russian Federation – 350001, Краснодарский край, г. Краснодар, ул. Воронежская, д. 42, ФКУ СИЗО-1 ГУФСИН России по Краснодарскому краю, Сергеева Виктория Владимировна, 1970 г. р.

Text by James Lofthouse

The persons unjustly imprisoned in Russia whose plight our project Write to Russia has highlighted to date can be found at this link:

Write to Russia – List of Prisoners

Donate: Support Us!