They won’t take me because I have lots of cats.” The story of political prisoner...

“They won’t take me because I have lots of cats.” The story of political prisoner Arina Ivanova

In August 2025, Novokuznetsk resident Arina Ivanova was sent to prison for five years under the article on military “fakes.”

On the day of the verdict, there was not a word about her in the media. Neither journalists nor human rights defenders knew about her.

Then her fellow townswoman Darya, who worked as a news editor at OVD-Info, accidentally found information about her prosecution and wrote her a letter in the pretrial detention center.

▶️ Why Arina Ivanova was prosecuted

Arina was first summoned to the police in October 2023 over anti-war posts. She was fined 1,500 rubles under the article on displaying banned symbols because of a swastika in a post. She received a second fine under the same article and for the same amount over a message containing a “slogan of Ukrainian nationalists.”

In November, she was fined 30,000 rubles under the article on discrediting the army because of several posts on VKontakte.

▶️ How Arina looked for support

To avoid being left alone with the problem, Arina moved in with her friend Karina.

“She said she was having endless panic attacks,” Karina recalls. “The walls were pressing in. She understood that any day they could come and take her away, and that she, a normal, law-abiding person, would end up in prison for words.

We talked about leaving, about applying for political asylum. I tried to push her toward it, but when I came home from work, she would just lie there and watch TV. Her psyche reacted that way — she shut herself inside a shell and could no longer get out.

She would say: ‘They won’t take me because I have lots of cats.’ She is a kind and naive girl, and by telling her the truth I was cutting her without a knife, but I had to bring her to her senses and back to reality, because she was completely in the clouds. I told her: ‘Arina, they don’t care how many cats you have, they don’t care at all. They’ll come, take you away, open the door, let the cats out, and that’s it.’”

▶️ How they came for Arina

Karina recalls:

“At first I didn’t want to let them into the apartment at all. They asked whether I knew Arina was wanted. I didn’t know. They went downstairs, brought back a court order for her detention, and said that if I didn’t let them in, they would break down the door and come in themselves.”

When Arina was taken away, Karina immediately called her mother and told her everything. Now they are in constant contact and try to support each other.

“I have only just started coming back to myself, and even that is thanks to antidepressants,” says Arina’s mother, Tatyana. “Until April, I was walking around in winter clothes and didn’t even realize summer was approaching: I was still in that December when she was taken away. You can’t even imagine how hard it is for her and me to be separated. I feel as if I am alone in outer space without her.”

On August 13 of last year, the Kuibyshevsky District Court sentenced&utmmedium=(none)) Arina Ivanova to five years in a general-regime penal colony for anti-war posts and comments under the article on spreading “fakes.” She left 14 cats behind outside prison.

🔗 Read Arina Ivanova’s full story in the new article on our website.

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