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Nurse Olga Menshikh, who was convicted due to anti-war posts, has been transferred to Penal Colony No. 3 “Pribrezhny” in Kostroma Oblast, a region northeast of Moscow. This was reported in a support group for another political prisoner and healthcare worker, Nadezhda Buyanova.
This same colony also holds the theatre director Evgenia Berkovich, who was convicted over the production “Finist the Brave Falcon,” and Valeria Zotova, who was accused of intending to set fire to a collection point for items for the military.
In October 2024, Olga Menshikh was found guilty under the article concerning the dissemination of “military fakes” motivated by political hatred (paragraph “d” of part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). She was sentenced to eight years in a general regime colony and a three-year ban on administering websites online. In April, this sentence was upheld on appeal.
The criminal case against Menshikh was initiated over two posts on VKontakte, which are currently deleted. The first post was published on 14 July 2022: “Zakharova is talking absolute rubbish at her bloody briefing. How can the earth bear her? God, what is she on about… At the same time, Vinnytsia. Russia bombarded the city centre for the first time, the missiles struck an office building: 12 dead, dozens injured,” the post said.
The second post was made on 31 March 2023: “Bucha is a small city in Kyiv region, and it was liberated from the Russian occupiers as early as 31 March 2022, exactly five weeks after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In five weeks of occupation in Bucha, 458 civilians died; 419 of them were shot or died from torture,” it read.
The prosecution believes Menshikh made these posts out of “disdainful, unfriendly, hostile-aggressive attitudes towards the Russian authorities, the social group of military personnel, the people of Russia, and the country as a whole.” Menshikh herself denies guilt and says she did not make the posts in question. She claims her account was hacked.
28 July The relatives of Olga Menshikh, who was transferred from the pre-trial detention centre to a colony, do not know where she is. Her sister told OVD-Info.
She clarified that Menshikh was transferred from the pre-trial detention centre on 16 July. However, the family still has no information about her arrival at Penal Colony No. 3 in Kostroma Oblast, or her whereabouts in general.
29 July Menshikh was delivered to Correctional Colony No. 3 in Kostroma Oblast, her sister told OVD-Info.
You can support Olga Menshikh by writing to her via the “F-Pismo” and ZT services, or by sending a paper letter to:
156511, Kostroma Oblast, Kostromskoy District, Pribrezhny settlement, ul. Mira, d. 1, Federal State Institution Penal Colony No. 3, Russian Federal Penitentiary Service for Kostroma Oblast
Menshikh, Olga Sergeyevna, born 1964
The news headline was changed after information was received from Menshikh’s relatives