Author: Alexander Detev
"Bulgaria is a safe place for me. This is a country where I can say what I think. To say that I am against the war, against Putin's regime and political repression. Here I feel free", says Ksenia Eliseeva. "In my country I cannot say these things without going to prison or even being killed", she adds.
Against the backdrop of the severe repressions to which all dissenters in Russia are subjected, Ksenia's arguments for wanting to stay in Bulgaria sound more than convincing. But the Bulgarian institutions do not think so. The young woman is refused protection by the State Agency for Refugees. According to the Supreme Administrative Court, there is no danger for her in Russia, because there was an information blackout there, and accordingly, there was no way for the Russians to find out about her activities against Putin and the war. It is as if the Russian services were also "blackout" themselves.
"She is not afraid of the Russian people, she is afraid of the authorities," commented to DW lawyer Diana Radoslavova from the "Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria", who is working on the case. "For Ksenia, there is no way back to Russia," she emphasizes.
After Navalny, she knows she has to flee
The young Russian woman is from Rostov-on-Don. She studied medicine and psychology. She says she has always been politically active. She participated in the major protests in 2019 in Russia. The reason for them is the ban on independent candidates from participating in the local elections in Moscow. The protests are some of the most massive in recent decades in Russia. They were brutally crushed, and over 3,000 people were arrested. After that, the authorities tightened the noose around the opposition even more. "The pressure grew every year. First there were the opposition politicians - they killed Nemtsov, they detained Navalny. But after 2019 they really started to focus on activists and people who actively protest", she recalls.
That's why she is becoming much more cautious in the future. "In 2021, when Navalny was arrested, we also had the last major protests. This time we knew that if we protested, we had to hide our faces."
However, two events showed her that she had to flee - the poisoning and subsequent arrest of Alexei Navalny, as well as the massing of soldiers on the border with Ukraine, near her native Rostov-on-Don. "I saw what happened to Navalny. And to everyone who protested", she says. "With everyone who demanded a better state that respects the law and the constitution."
"You are not Navalny"
Ksenia first went to Poland, then to Montenegro and Armenia. Since 2021, she has lived in Bulgaria. "I know many Bulgarians who support me and help me. As well as Russians here who profess my political views," says the young woman. In Bulgaria, she regularly demonstrates her position - she participates in protests against Russian aggression, joins the association "For Free Russia", which fights against Putin's regime and the war in Ukraine.
"We want to show Europe that not all Russians support what is happening," says the Russian woman. The example of Navalny clearly shows her that such activity in Russia is unthinkable today. "We need to stop the war. Let's do everything possible. But here. Because if Navalny had not returned to Russia, he would still be fighting for a better Russia," adds the activist.
But Ksenia is not Navalny. And according to some Bulgarian institutions, this turns out to be a sufficient reason for her not to be entitled to political asylum. "You are not Navalny", says a judge from the Administrative Court in Sofia, when they reject her attempt to appeal the decision of the State Agency for Refugees (SAR).
The Supreme Administrative Court contradicts itself
After being denied protection by the SAR, Ksenia challenged the decision in court. The Administrative Court - Sofia-city rejected her claim, but the Supreme Administrative Court upheld it and returned the case for retrial to the first instance. "The second decision of the Administrative Court Sofia-city overturns the SAR's refusal to grant protection to Ksenia, providing a very accurate and detailed analysis of the situation in Russia in light of her activist activities," says Diana Radoslavova. But during the second hearing of the case at the SAC, the decision was reversed. "The second panel of the Supreme Administrative Court, with extremely superficial arguments, overturned the decision of the Sofia City Administrative Court and finally closed the case", explains the lawyer. Thus, two panels in the same court make radically different decisions. "The Supreme Administrative Court contradicts itself. This is shocking", says Radoslavova.
According to the lawyer, it is becoming increasingly difficult for refugees in general to stay in our country. "We have mass refusals of protection at the SAR and Supreme Administrative Court levels, especially in view of the changed practice in Syrian cases, we even refuse to grant protection to unaccompanied minors. I know of a case of refusal of protection to a four-year-old unaccompanied child", she says. This also applies to political refugees - people like Russian Alexander Stotsky, who fought for three years before receiving status, and Saudi Abdulrahman al-Khalidi, who is facing deportation. "This mass refusals speak of the lack of an individual approach. And of political, not judicial, actions", the lawyer commented.
DV sent questions to the State Agency for Refugees, both about the case of Ksenia Eliseeva, and whether the institution even believes that Russia is a country that persecutes non-communists. The SAR replied that "all procedural guarantees were observed during the administrative proceedings to grant international protection to the Russian citizen." According to the SAR, the facts and circumstances were analyzed in detail in the refusal. "The guarantee that no substantive or procedural law was violated in this case is the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC)," they added.
"Someday Russia will be free"
Ksenia has no choice but to reapply for protection, her lawyer explains. She is not losing hope. "Of course I am afraid and worried. But we must be strong and I am sure that the law and human rights will protect me," she says.
She is not losing hope for the future of Russia either: "Totalitarianism is basically personified by one person. And no one is immortal. That will change someday." She says that many people, including her relatives, know what is happening, but they are afraid to raise their heads. There are many wonderful people in Russia who want change, who want to have a voice and live in a free country. When I talk to them today, they tell me: We can't talk, the walls have ears."
"One day Russia will be free," Ksenia is convinced. Whether she will also be free in Bulgaria or behind bars in her homeland depends on Bulgarian institutions.