Front view of the Russian opposition To Alexei Navalny belonging to a close circle Kira Jarmyš know what Russian society looks like from behind bars.
Jarmyš’s debut work Women’s cell no. 3 was translated into Finnish in September and is partially based on the author’s own tube experiences.
Imprisonments and dozens of days’ tube trips have become familiar to the 33-year-old Jarmyš, because while working as Navalny’s assistant, he has participated in organizing several anti-regime demonstrations in Russia.
Jarmyš has been in the cell four times.
– I was once sentenced to 25 days in prison because of a tweet, because it told about the time of the expression of opinion. The most special thing was that there was a girl in my cell who had been arrested for two days for stealing a cognac bottle, Jarmyš tells in a video call.
Born in the Soviet Union, Rostov-on-Don, in 1989.
Works for an opposition politician To Alexei Navalny as an assistant and press secretary at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), a for-profit organization that investigates corruption.
The debut work Naisten selli no. 3 was published in Russian in 2020.
The work was published in September 2022 in Finnish. The novel has been translated into Finnish Arja Pikkupeura.
The work has been translated into a total of ten languages.
Jarmyš’s second novel Häirinta was published in 2022. It has not been translated into Finnish.
Descriptions of Sell’s conditions are not made up of wind
Women’s cell no. 3 novel is about a woman who is sentenced to ten days in a Moscow cell for participating in an anti-corruption demonstration. In Cell, the main character Anja gets to know women from different social classes.
People are united by the fact that, for one reason or another, they have fallen into the teeth of the administrative apparatus.
– Education or wealth have nothing to do with arrests. Nowadays, anyone from a professor to an Instagram model can end up in a cell. It is enough to disagree with the system even a little, says Jarmyš.
As in the novel, also in real life you can get behind bars for an anti-corruption demonstration as well as for not bribing an official, i.e. following the law.
– The Russian system is rotten all the way from the president’s administration to the lowest official apparatus. Judges and police act completely arbitrarily when deciding who will be put in jail and on what basis, Jarmyš says.
In smaller towns, for example, police violence is commonplace. However, the situation in Moscow is on average better than in the rest of Russia.
As a boss, Russia’s most famous prisoner
As Alexei Navalny’s press secretary and assistant, Jarmyš is one of the few who have been able to keep in touch with Navalny since he was sentenced to prison.
Navalnyi is serving a total of 11 years in a maximum security prison for parole violation, embezzlement and contempt of court.
After August, Navalny was practically completely banned from communicating with the outside world. Even the family is not allowed to visit him.
Navalny is only allowed to contact his lawyer through supervisory authorities.
Jarmyš is in regular contact with Navalny’s lawyer, but there is very little information about the conditions and activities of the opposition leader.
– Aleksei’s health has recently deteriorated. The pains in his back have intensified. He has lost a lot of weight, says Jarmyš.
In addition, Navalny has to be in solitary confinement almost constantly.
Jarmyš says that Navalny is being held in a room measuring about six square meters, with no window. In the summer, the isolation cell is sweltering hot and in the winter very cold.
The cell’s bed is removed during the day so that the prisoner cannot sit on it during the 16-hour vigil. Navalny is not allowed to take anything but one book into his solitary confinement cell.
– He will be locked in solitary confinement for 15 days at a time. That is the maximum amount allowed by law. Then they let him go for a day and find some excuse to put him back in solitary confinement. It is obvious torture, says Jarmyš.
Many of Navalny’s supporters have left Russia
In August 2021, Kira Jarmyš was sentenced to house arrest for violating the corona rules. At the end of the same month, Jarmyš moved out of Russia.
Jarmyš had already spent seven months under house arrest in Moscow and knew that without the Internet and opportunities to communicate with the outside world, he would not be able to continue his work.
– Then I got the news two days late and the lawyer brought me Twitter conversations printed on A4 paper. I felt more isolated from Russian society than ever since I left abroad.
After the war of aggression started by Russia, European countries have decided to limit the granting of visas to Russians.
Jarmyš says he supports personal sanctions for those who support the president Vladimir Putin war in public. However, he believes that the decision to limit visas was a populist gesture by European politicians.
– I consider the decision to limit visas to be unequal. Denying visas based on country of birth does not help Ukraine in any way. It will not stop Putin, the Putinists, or the Russian army in Ukraine.
Jarmyš: “The stakes have risen”
After the war of aggression that started in February, the opposition’s room for maneuver has been narrowed even further and opposing the regime in Russia has become even more dangerous.
– The stakes have risen. Now, instead of ten days, a wrong word can result in a 15-year prison sentence, says Jarmyši.
In August, Jarmyš was accused of spreading false information about the Russian army, because he had told in a YouTube video of the Anti Corruption Foundation about how Russia is bombing Ukrainian cities.
The crime can result in a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
– I consider the accusations absurd. I think the Kremlin wanted to take revenge for the fact that I told the truth about the events in Butša, he says.
In April, mass graves were found on the tracks of the retreating Russians from Bucha, Ukraine. It was revealed that Russian soldiers had brutally killed the inhabitants of the area.
In the West, it has been frowned upon that the Russians have not risen up to oppose the war started by Putin en masse.
Jarmyš states that the Russians may appear to Western countries as passive bystanders of the war. However, according to him, it does not mean that a large part of the Russian population is not aware of the system’s flaws.
– Russians have been taught for decades that even a small mistake can result in a long sentence. I think it’s unreasonable to ask people to go to the street, if you can lose your job and get years in prison just for using the word war, says Jarmyš.
According to Jarmyš, there is opposition to the war in Russia, but it does not necessarily appear in mass protests on the streets, but in everyday actions.
For example, after Putin ordered the launch of the initiative, concrete ways to avoid subpoenas were shared on social media.
– Although the Russian government tries to distance the citizens from politics, in reality there is no one left in Russia who is not involved with politics in one way or another, says Jarmyš.
The author pours hope into Russian women
Jarmyš believes that Russian women will play a significant role in breaking Putin’s regime.
For years, the Kremlin has ignored the voice of women in its politics. Many women have felt that they are not heard.
– When mobilized men return en masse in coffins, it will be a huge shock and disaster for the families. It might provoke many people to oppose the war more strongly, Jarmyš estimates.
Change is already in the air.
After the launch, widespread protests broke out in the most conservative corner of Russia, the Republic of Dagestan. Women march at their head.
The voices of mothers, sisters and spouses were heard even in the Kremlin. As a result of the protests, the business launch in the area was cancelled.
Today, Sunday, Kira Jarmyš is visiting the Helsinki Book Fair.
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