Russian Woman Flew in From Kyiv to Renew Her Passport. Now She Is Under "Carousel Arrests"

Russian Woman Flew in From Kyiv to Renew Her Passport. Now She Is Under "Carousel Arrests"

46-year-old Svetlana Golovatenko has lived in Kyiv for more than ten years. She works as a manicure and pedicure specialist and has a Ukrainian residence permit. In April, she flew to Moscow via Georgia to renew her Russian passport and re-register an apartment in Donetsk that she inherited from her father.

▶️ What Is Happening to Her

Golovatenko was detained on April 23 right in the arrivals area of Vnukovo Airport. The police report says "petty hooliganism": allegedly, the woman was shouting loudly and behaving aggressively. Since then, she has been arrested four times under the same article, and on June 9 she was again given 15 days.

Golovatenko is currently being held at the Center for the Detention of Foreign Citizens on Varshavskoye Highway.

"The person was traveling home, to her parents, and they are holding her without presenting [charges], just holding her," a source familiar with the situation told Mediazona. "They've already morally destroyed her there... this is the FSB doing it. In an unstable state, she signed everything they scribbled out for her there! They put papers on her knees and say: sign, or we'll take you God knows where. And the girl, what could she do, she's weak, especially morally crushed."

▶️ Are "Carousel Arrests" Legal

Unfortunately, such arrests are legal from the standpoint of Russian legislation. At the same time, they violate international law, in particular because they obstruct the exercise of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Law enforcement officers often use this scheme before opening a criminal case. Together with Meduza, we explained here what is distinctive about such arrests and whether it is possible to get out of the "arrest carousel."

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Svetlana Golovatenko / Photo: social media