by Kirill Buketov
June 14, 2023
“Give me a chance to be a mother.”
An associate of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for founding an “extremist” group. How did former auditor Lilia Chanysheva become an outspoken Putin critic?
“I am a politician, a women who is being persecuted by male opponents, whose names are [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Head of Bashkortostan Radiy] Khabirov.” This is how Lilia Chanysheva, 41, opened her final statement to the circuit court in Ufa, the capital of the southwestern Russian Republic of Bashkortostan, on May 29.
The district court on Wednesday found her guilty of creating an “extremist organization” and sentenced her to 7 1/2 years in a penal colony.
Before her arrest, Chanysheva was chief of the local team working for Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. She is the first of Navalny’s associates to face criminal charges for “extremism” after his entire network of regional representations was declared illegal.
Chanysheva chose civil rights over a business career
“She loves her homeland Bashkortostan very much,” Chanysheva’s husband Almaz Gatin told DW. He and public auditor Chanysheva met at the consulting firm Deloitte in 2017.
That first evening, she told him about her great passion to improve the lives of others. “And then she had to choose: Either carry on with her career as an auditor, or leave the company and fight for civil rights,” Gatin explained.
She chose civil rights. In March 2017, Chanysheva became the head of Navalny’s team in Ufa. Back then, Navalny still hoped to stand for presidential elections in 2018.
“As soon as Lilia joined us, we could sense a certain kind of confidence,” one of her companions, Ruslan Shaveddinov, told DW. He is one of the members of Navalny’s team who had to leave the country. “She had her own vision, she had excellent knowledge of the region and the political landscape, and she knew how everything worked,” he said.
Chanysheva chided leaders: ‘Steal less, gentlemen, eat less!’
Chanysheva gained prominence in 2016, when she captured a violation of procedure on video while serving as an observer of Bashkortostan’s regional and communal elections.
Another video that made her famous was captured in 2019 and showed her attending a hearing on the budget of the Republic of Bashkortostan and asking questions about the use of public funds.
“How can we raise public income? Steal less, gentlemen, eat less, lower your salary and pay less to propagandistic media,” she said. Shortly after, two security guards forcibly removed her from the building.
Afterwards, Radiy Khabirov, head of the Republic of Bashkortostan, declared she should not have attended the hearing in the first place. “Lilia challenged him publicly,” Shaveddinov explained. “And Khabirov is one of the architects of the political system in which we live.”
Khabirov became head of the Republic of Bashkortostan in September 2019. Following his ascension to office, Chanysheva regularly published critical videos and articles about him, pointing out, among other things, his fleet of cars, his luxurious country house, and his wife’s wealth.
The most important achievement of Navalny’s local office in Ufa might be the fact that the team was able to prevent a limestone mining project at Kushtau mountain — planned by a large chemical company — from moving forward. Chanycheva was considered the unofficial leader of the protest movement.
Her husband proposed while she was in prison
When Russia erupted in protest over the arrest of Alexei Navalny in January 2021, Chanysheva was also arrested. Gatin proposed to her while she was in detention.
“She cried and said she was very happy, that she had been waiting for my proposal. When she was released on February 17, we submitted a marriage application to the registrar’s office,” Gatin said. That same year, Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption (FBK) was declared an “extremist organization.” The local offices were closed and Chanycheva announced she was pausing her political career.
“It is tough to make decisions like these when you have been doing this work for so many years. But we wanted to start a family. We had celebrated our wedding and were getting ready to become parents. She has a right to be happy, to be a wife, and become a mother,” Gatin said.
But the couple was only able to enjoy a normal life for a few months. In the early morning of November 9, 2021, the apartments of Chanysheva and several other opposition representatives in Ufa were searched following a warrant from the local public prosecutor’s office.
Chanysheva faces ‘a sham trial that ends with a long sentence’
Chanysheva was brought to a detention center on November 10, where she remains today. Her fellow campaigners are convinced that her case is politically motivated.
“They are clearly doing this to hold a sham trial that will end with a long prison sentence. It is obvious there is pressure from above. They grab a girl, and all the pro-government media can report that a dangerous ‘extremist’ was arrested,” Shaveddinov explained.
“My wife is now a young, pragmatic, democratic politician. I cannot find a trace of fear in her eyes, not at all. She has become much stronger during her incarceration,” Gatin said.
A penultimate court hearing in the criminal case against Chanysheva was held in the capital of Bashkortostan, Ufa, on May 29 2023. The verdict will be announced at 11:00 a.m. on June 14. A state prosecutor previously demanded 12 years in prison for the politician on charges of extremism and creating an organization that violates citizens’ privacy and rights.
Chanysheva did not admit guilt in her final statement, published online by Navalny’s team, saying that she had been doing her job as a politician and plans to continue fighting corruption and lawlessness in Russia.
Final statement in court
“My criminal case is a political one. That’s why I don’t feel like a defendant. I am a politician, a woman who is persecuted by her male opponents. Their names are [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan Radiy] Khabirov.
Being a politician is also a profession. So admitting guilt to me is like a teacher admitting [that] she is a teacher and a doctor admitting [that] she is a doctor.
I am not alone in politics. As I said, there are opponents. So [in order] judge my activities, it’s important to know the context. So here it is.
It was under [Radiy] Khabirov that civil activists and environmentalists in Bashkortostan began to be attacked, the regional public organization ‘Bashkort’ was declared extremist, politician [Airat] Dilmukhametov was jailed, [Anton] Orlov, chairman of the union of medical workers, the lawyer [Alexander] Voitsekh was arrested, and the MP [Dmitry] Chuvilin was arrested. It became unsafe for everyone in [Bashkortostan], as Khabirov used methods of force against women who were expressing their civic stance.
Compare our actions: petitions, publicity, complaints, participation in peaceful rallies and public hearings. But in response, they subject us to surveillance, searches, kidnappings, arrests, imprisonment, they forcibly remove us from public hearings, throw paint on our cars, file lawsuits worth millions in compensation for the wages of police officers who work at our rallies.
Meanwhile, Khabirov continually tries to sell Bashkortostan’s environmental sites to oligarchs, closes hospitals and underpays doctors, scams public procurement, and forces the residents of the republic to overpay for housing and utilities.
When I was getting ready for my ‘final statement’, I read the ‘last words’ of ten people. Here are their names: Yevgeny Roizman, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Dmitry Ivanov, Alexei Gorinov, Andrei Pivovarov, Ivan Safronov, Vladimir Vorontsov, Yuri Zhdanov, Ilya Yashin and, of course, Alexei Navalny.
These are all strong and intelligent men whom Putin has managed to convict in the year and a half that I have been in prison. But Putin has not spared women either: the journalist [Maria] Ponomarenko was given 6 years in prison, the artist [Sasha] Skochilenko is awaiting trial, the theatrical figures [Evgenia] Berkovich and [Svetlana] Petriichuk are being prosecuted, the artist [Yulia] Tsvetkova has been tried for several years, and the politician [Yulia] Galiamina has been neutralized. And how many more names of talented and courageous women, who were put in jail for their position, remain unknown.
And after all this, former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev sits in a legal forum and laughs at the fact that there are less than 25% women in the Russian government, unlike the Egyptian government. Does this mean that there is no place for women in politics in our country? Or does access to this profession depend on political views? Isn’t that discrimination? And have the men in power decided to add bars on the windows to our glass ceiling as well?
The violation of my political rights and the rights of my fellow citizens is consistent. This shows that Putin has long wanted to eradicate any dissent and create a hostile environment between the people and the government for the sole purpose of keeping power in 2024. But Putin is corruption, low wages and pensions, a falling economy and rising prices. Putin is war! And it’s already affected everyone!
Answer the question: are you living better now than you were ten years ago? Is it easier for you to shop than it was ten years ago? Do you feel safer than you did ten years ago? If your answer is no, take action and you can make a difference.
Your Honor! To me, you are not only a judge, but you are my constituency. During the trial, I told you about my successes. Support me as a politician, as a woman, and I will do everything I can to rid you of the illegal pressure of the executive branch. I will continue to fight corruption and lawlessness in our republic.
Your Honor! You are not only a judge and a voter, but, as the trial has shown, you are a person with a position of your own. If you put me in jail for 12 years, I will not have time to give birth to a child. Give me a chance to be a mother.