INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
"Three guys from the staff attacked me and started pulling off my clothes
And they started tearing my clothes off, injuring me, hitting me several times, threatening that they would put me in a straitjacket and
an environmental, human rights and anti-corruption activist, underwent a psychiatric evaluation in July 2022.Soon, Kuzmina could face an
even more frightening ordeal: forced psychiatric treatment.Her story is eerily reminiscent of the Soviet-era practice of punitive
psychiatry, in which estimates suggest thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dissidents and suspected dissidents endured forced
on eco-activism rise across the country, experts and activists told The Moscow Times.The Environmental Crisis Group (ECG), a project
five cases of forced psychiatry against ecological defenders during 2019-2022, there have already been three such cases in 2023 so far, ECG
Sander / SOTAMoscow authorities started persecuting Kuzmina in August 2021, when she climbed some 20 meters into a tree in northeast
attempt to save herself from resettlement and the remnants of the nearby green space, which she said was being encroached upon with forged
papers, Kuzmina resorted to this public action after her efforts to find justice through bureaucratic means, including filing lawsuits,
fact that she carried a crossbow into the tree, distorting the image of her peaceful solitary picket.State investigators later acknowledged
that Kuzmina's crossbow was not a weapon and could be used for sports and recreation
Kuzmina said she only carried the crossbow, which was unloaded, for self-defense, as she had previously been attacked by police officers.The
decision on her involuntary hospitalization, a result of a trial that she said took place with numerous violations.Hospital staff only
said she was held in improper conditions for her fourth-stage lymphedema, which requires a specific diet, mattress and an environment where
sanity of the accused is in question
If the examination determines the person was not sane while committing the alleged crime, the court can order forced psychiatric
linked this harsh treatment to her determined resistance to the authorities and businesses hoping to profit from Moscow development
Of course, I turned to all these so-called law enforcement agencies that we [Russians] simply don't have
We have neither courts nor law enforcement agencies, nothing
It's all one continuous rot."Similar events have recently unfolded in Krasnoyarsk, an economic center in eastern Siberia 4,000 kilometers
linked the pressure to her active civic involvement on issues including waste management and her opposition to the construction of a
abroad."According to Servetnik, others have faced punitive psychiatry after taking part in protests where civil society achieved victories,
impact on individuals, punitive psychiatry can be used to tarnish the reputation of environmental movements and sow fright among the engaged
undergone [forced psychiatric treatment] are not ready to talk about it
And one of the individuals we spoke to said that it's a hundred times better to end up in pre-trial detention again than to go to [a
disagree with the state, Kuzmina now faces the prospect of being forcefully placed in a psychiatric facility."[In Soviet times] they held
healthy people for decades, it was just necessary to prove that these people disagreed with the authorities because they were psychos
providing her much hope for a different ruling, the activist gives the impression of a person determined to defend her rights and her home
To be honest, I cannot even imagine
