PARIS: Anti-Kremlin artist and musician Alexandra Skochilenko, freed in a historic prisoner swap in August, has urged Western governments to work on a new exchange to release Russian child political prisoners. Skochilenko, who had been serving a seven-year prison sentence for replacing supermarket price tags with messages opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, was one of 16 Russian dissidents and foreign nationals freed on August 1 in the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.
While activists say there are hundreds of political prisoners in Russia, Skochilenko said the West should help free Moscow’s youngest political victims amid a clampdown by President Vladimir Putin that had only intensified after the invasion. "I would like a new exchange—if it happens—to be a swap for Russian child political prisoners,” Skochilenko told Agence France-Presse in an interview in Paris. "You would stand up for the most vulnerable who may not be of any practical use to you. Such a child would arrive, he won’t overthrow the Putin regime, he’s not going to generate revenue, but that’s what people do in the name of humanity.”
"There are quite a lot of child political prisoners,” said the 34-year-old who spent over two years behind bars in Saint Petersburg. She added that teenagers detained on political grounds were jailed together with teen murderers and rapists. "There was a juvenile detention center on our prison territory, and I saw them, I spoke to them, I heard them yell every night, beat each other, smash their cells. And our pro-opposition kids are being thrown together with them. This is very scary.”
Over 50 minors
In June, 16-year-old schoolboy Arseny Turbin was found guilty of terror offenses and is now serving a five-year sentence in a correctional facility. Turbin, who was 15 at the time of his arrest, is recognized by rights group Memorial as Russia’s only child political prisoner. However, over 50 minors have been deprived of freedom on "politically motivated” charges, Sergei Davidis, head of political prisoners support project at Memorial, told AFP. Skochilenko said many such cases are not widely known because some parents fear publicity will hurt their jailed children.
"It’s a very difficult choice,” she said. "These parents are afraid.” Winning the release of such teens would not only draw publicity to egregious rights violations but would also be a "big blow” to the Kremlin and expose its hypocrisy, Skochilenko said. On one hand, she said, Putin’s propaganda trumpets family values; on the other hand, the system is doing everything to "torment” dissenting children and their parents.
Skochilenko was jailed despite a number of health conditions, including bipolar disorder, celiac disease and a congenital heart defect. The artist, with long hair and a penchant for hippie clothes, said she was bullied by some prisoners. One fellow inmate told her: "You stink terribly”, making her wash her clothes. "The next day I would wear clean clothes but she would say again that I stink.” At the same time she also saw a degree of sympathy, with some prison officials telling her she was wrongfully convicted. — AFP
Skochilenko said she received "mountains” of letters and had survived thanks to the huge publicity and the love of her girlfriend of seven years, Sonia Subbotina. "She fought for me every single day,” said Skochilenko.
‘Get the hell out’
While some of the activists who were released in the swap would like to go back to Russia, Skochilenko said Germany, which gave her and her girlfriend political asylum, was her new home now. "I don’t want to go back to Russia. This country told me ‘get the hell out of here,’” she said. "Even if things change there, maybe even in my lifetime, there will be so many people who will say that they were against Putin’s regime and Putin’s power,” she said. "All these people will change their colors and, frankly, it will be disgusting.” Skochilenko and Subbotina plan to get married and they do not know if they will ever be able to tie the knot in Russia.
Russia banned what it called the "international LGBT movement” in November last year, essentially cracking down on same-sex couples. Skochilenko still suffers from flashbacks and has nightmares. "Any person who has been through a major crisis, and especially a Russian prison, will of course have PTSD,” she said, adding however that she was optimistic. "What I feel is relief, I feel euphoric because of my new life,” she said. "Of course this is stressful, because it is a new life, but it is a pleasant stress, it is a good stress, this is not a prison.”
Skochilenko and Subbotina look forward to moving to a new apartment in Germany soon. "Yes, it will be empty, we’ll be like two hippies on a mattress, will probably ring in the New Year there,” she smiled. "It will be very cool, we can just start from scratch.” Would she stage her anti-war protest all over again? In a heartbeat, said Skochilenko. "I always knew I would get out of prison,” she said. "But I will always live with my conscience.” — AFP