Jailed activist Ramilya Saitova (aka Galim) of Russia’s Republic of Bashkortostan has been placed under strict conditions in a Russian prison in the Perm region, where she is serving a five-year sentence for an online post she made protesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The change in Saitova’s status came after a skirmish with two other women who took turns beating her, according to activists from Bashkortostan who spoke to RFE/RL on October 18 on the condition of anonymity.
A court in Samara on October 16 rejected Saitova’s complaint against the decision to place her under harsher conditions.
The activists, who monitor Saitova’s case, said they found out about the fight with the two other women at the same time they heard that her complaint had been rejected. They don’t know why the fight occurred.
“As far as we know, she had quite normal relations with everyone in the colony. Ramilya complained to the duty officer, but in the end the disciplinary commission recognized her as a malicious violator of the order and expelled Ramilya to a punishment cell for 15 days,” one of the sources told RFE/RL.
After leaving the punishment cell, she was assigned to a barracks with stricter conditions, including a prohibition on calls to relatives.
The activists said they consider this "a provocation by the administration and, possibly, the special services."
The two women involved in the fight are considered inmates of "exemplary behavior" in the colony and have now been recognized as alleged victims of Saitova's actions, the activists told RFE/RL.
Saitova plans to appeal the decisions of the colony administration and the refusal of the Court of Cassation in Samara to the Supreme Court of Russia.
Saitova, who has been recognized by the Memorial human rights group as a political prisoner, was arrested in May 2023 and charged with "public calls for actions aimed against the country's security." She rejected the charge, which stemmed from her online video address to men mobilized in Bashkortostan, calling on them "to be brave and openly say, 'I do not want to kill.'"
The Kirovsky District Court of Ufa, which sentenced her in December 2023, also banned the activist from engaging in activities related to the administration of websites for a period of four years.
In April 2024, the Supreme Court of Bashkortostan upheld Saitova's sentence, which she began serving the following month at the women's penal colony No. 18 in the Perm region.
Her lawyer, Garifulla Yaparov, said earlier that she had been well received there. The attitude of the colony’s management toward her was normal, and she didn’t complain about the food, Yaparov said at the time.