"So we registered, started our activities in March 2022, and registered as a legal entity in April. Then we launched our website in June 2022, and two weeks later it was blocked by Roskomnadzor — everything happened very quickly.
In November 2022, I was declared a foreign agent, on 25 November to be precise. I was on the last list, remember, when there was still a distinction between ‘foreign agents who are private individuals’ and ‘foreign agents who are media outlets’. I was a foreign agent who was a private individual. And then they wrote whose foreign agent you were. Mine said: ‘Ukraine.’
Then a criminal case was brought against me in January 2023, almost immediately after I was declared a foreign agent. In February 2023, I was declared wanted. It all happened very quickly.
In March 2023, the Foundation was declared a foreign agent. Then, in September 2023, our Foundation was declared an undesirable organisation. And in November 2023, I was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in absentia.
And in July 2024, we were declared an extremist organisation, that is, a branch of the non-existent ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’. And in December 2024, we were declared a terrorist organisation.
So today, we — the Free Buryatia Foundation — are a foreign agent, an undesirable organisation, a terrorist and extremist organisation."
“The motives initially stemmed from the fact that since 2014, from the very beginning of the Russian intervention in Donbas, the Buryats had acquired a negative image — that of so-called Putin's Buryat warriors’. Why did this happen?
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. Not openly, but de facto — yes. And in an attempt to conceal its presence, it sent military personnel there from Russian territory.
Take, for example, the Pskov paratroopers, whom we know about from Lev Shlosberg's investigation. Outwardly, they resemble the inhabitants of Donbas; they are Slavs. And how can you prove that they are Russian soldiers if they have no documents or insignia? You could say they are local militiamen.
But the Buryat tank crews, who were also sent to Donbas in 2014-2015, look different; they are Asian. It was their presence that made it obvious that regular Russian troops were fighting on Ukrainian territory.
At the same time, pro-Kremlin activists shot a provocative video — ‘Address by Putin's Buryat fighters to the frightened people of Ukraine.’ Later, I talked to the young people who participated in it. They admitted that they were paid, they did not understand the context, they just read the text they were given. It contained insults such as ‘your economy is flying into Conchita Wurst's European crotch’ — the most vulgar things possible.
This video went viral and was remembered in Ukraine. And the meme about ‘Putin's Buryat warriors’ remained."
"That is, we talk a lot about self-awareness, the value of the Buryat language, and we also draw attention to the imperial, imperialistic nature of this war against Ukraine. What Putin says, that Ukrainian is not a language, that statehood was invented by Lenin, and that “we are great” — this is all an imperial paradigm.
In this regard, there is a lot of work to be done, including with some representatives of the Russian opposition, who for the most part think imperially. I don't know what to do about this — don't they understand the obvious?
I am currently writing a study for a think tank entitled ‘What Russia could learn from Japan and South Korea’ in the event of a window of opportunity. Prior to that, I wrote a Globsec Research paper for a think tank entitled ‘How Russia can become a true federation’ following the example of Germany and the United States of America. I also paid separate attention to the municipal reforms carried out by Ukraine in terms of creating united territorial communities, and to how the Republic of Lithuania moved away from its Soviet legacy.
This is because I believe that a truly sensible country is ready to learn — no matter from whom — if it sees that the practices have been useful. But Russia very often asks: ‘Why should we learn from some Ukraine or some Lithuania? Where are we, and where are they? We are great. We are big.’"
Alexandra Garmazhapova (born 7 April 1989, Khoito-Bae village, Ivolginsky District, Buryat ASSR, USSR) is a Russian-Buryat investigative journalist, political activist, founder and head of the Free Buryatia organisation. She graduated with honours from the Faculty of Journalism at Saint Petersburg State University (SPbU). The topic of her thesis was ‘The influence of the media in Ukraine and Moldova on the course of the “colour revolutions”’. In 2009, she reported on numerous violations in the municipal elections in Saint Petersburg. In 2013, she conducted an investigation that described and gave a name to the phenomenon of the ‘Kremlin troll factory’ — Yevgeny Prigozhin’s underground centre for producing pro-government comments on the internet. She infiltrated one of its structures under the guise of a job applicant. For this work, she was nominated for the Golden Pen of Russia award . She has repeatedly faced xenophobia and threats from far-right groups because of her Buryat origins and appearance. She has been living outside Russia since 2016. In March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she was one of the initiators of the creation of the organisation Free Buryatia. The organisation positions itself as a human rights and humanitarian organisation, opposes war, keeps lists of military personnel from Buryatia who have been killed in action, and promotes the theme of decolonisation. It was recognised as a ‘foreign agent’ by the Russian authorities (2022), convicted in absentia on criminal charges (2023), and declared a ‘terrorist’ organisation (2024).
