Religious minorities in Russia often face persecution. A Russian pastor's family had to flee Sochi. Now they hope they can live in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Media
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"Why Germany? The Protestant Church here is strong," explains Alexey Kolyasnikov when asked why he applied for political asylum in Germany. The pastor hopes that German authorities will grant him asylum. "It is very dangerous to return to Russia. There, I will be declared a terrorist and put behind bars," says Kolyasnikov.
Since the end of July 2017, the pastor, his wife and three daughters have been living in a refugee shelter in the western German city of Leverkusen. In the school gymnasium that has been furnished to temporarily accommodate refugees, the Kolyasnikovs share what little space they have with refugees from Chechnya.
Alexey Kolyasnikov with wife in LeverkusenImage: DW/A. Magazova
"Unauthorized gathering" in a café
Kolyasnikov is convinced that he is being persecuted for his religious activities in Russia. In 2014, the pastor held a gathering with his Pentecostal congregation. As they do not have their own church building, the congregation members met in a café in Sochi as usual. On that evening, police officers and members of the Russia's main intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) suddenly appeared during the bible reading. They accused Kolyasnikov of holding an unauthorized gathering, which is a civil violation.
"Six weeks previously, a young woman attended our gathering for the first time. From then on, she took part in everything – she was very interested in the topics we discussed. However, on the evening the FSB appeared, she did not come alone, but with a friend, as she called him," recalls Kolyasnikov.
Later, it turned out that the supposed friend actually worked for the intelligence agency FSB. That young woman and her friend later testified against the pastor in court. Alexander Popkov, Kolyasnikov's lawyer, said that in the past, the woman had also appeared in trials against other religious communities in Sochi.
The judges imposed a fine on Kolyasnikov for "organizing an unauthorized gathering." After filing an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the violation of his right to religious freedom in the Russian Federation, the pressure started to mount. And then, all at once, a Ukrainian trail was added to the story.
Euromaidan supporter
DW is in possession of a copy of a letter sent to the public prosecutor's office of the southern Russian Krasnodar region. In it, then-FSB Major-General Alexander Rodionov not only documented civil violations but also the pastor's direct links to the events in Ukraine in the winter of 2013 and spring of 2014.
The letter states that "upon taking power, 'Euromaideners' - whose religious conviction is based on the ideology of pro-West Protestant religious movements and is supported by the EU as well as NATO - a growing threat of 'anti-Russian' hotspots has developed, though which social and ideological tension is emanated." After that, Russia's center for anti-extremism took on the case.
Kolyasnikov asserts that he, as a pastor, condemned all forms of violence and bloodshed in Kyiv. Moreover, he says that his religious beliefs did not allow him to support the revolution in Ukraine. "I was clearly against the Maidan. At that time, we prayed for the good of the country and the president," he claims. When he read the FSB report, he was shocked that security forces thought he had taken part in the Euromaidan protests.
"It is also ridiculous because I never went to Ukraine at the time. I was in Kyiv for the first time in 2016, and of course, many of my prejudices were dispelled. Nobody there attacked me because I spoke Russian. I felt very free there," says the pastor. He is convinced that legal cases are opened arbitrarily against anyone and are always easily justified by links to the events in Ukraine.
Riot Days: Pussy Riot's acts of defiance
We take a look back at Russian punk provocateurs Pussy Riot and their remarkable defiance of political persecution and nationalist ideology in Russia.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Starting a riot
All-girl Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot created an international storm in 2012 with a guerrilla performance in Moscow's main cathedral that called for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia's president a few days later. The protest attracted worldwide attention, and three members of the group were arrested.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
State censorship
During the ensuing court hearing in Moscow in August 2012, Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova (right), Maria Alyokhina (center) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (left) could be seen in a glass-walled cage. Support for the Pussy Riot activists came from all over the world.
Image: Getty Images/AFP
Cause celebre
Pussy Riot's iconic colorful balaclava face masks allowed supporters near and far to become "members of the band." Here, a protester is arrested during a demonstration in support of Pussy Riot in 2012 in front of the Russian consulate in New York on the day a Russian judge found three members of the provocative punk band guilty of hooliganism.
Image: AP
No way out
Pussy Riot band member Nadya Tolokonnikova looks out from a holding cell during a court hearing in April 2013. Tolokonnikova was appealing her conviction for "hooliganism motivated by religious hate," for which she was serving two years in a remote prison. Many international stars such as Madonna called for the Pussy Riot members' release.
Image: Reuters
Back under attack
After their release from prison under an amnesty in late 2013, Pussy Riot were soon protesting again, this time at the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi. While they were preparing to sing the song "Putin Will Teach You to Love Your Motherland," a spoof on state nationalism, a Cossack militiaman who was armed with a whip attacked band member Nadya Tolokonnikova and a photographer.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Fight the power
Masked Pussy Rot members leave a police station in Adler during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014. Two members of the band, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were detained after they were wrongfully suspected of stealing a handbag from their hotel.
Image: Reuters
Getting the word out
By 2015, Moscow-based Maria Alyokhina (left) and Nadya Tolokonnikova increasingly traveled Europe to continue campaigning against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here they answer questions from the audience at the 23rd Sziget (Island) Festival on Shipyard Island in Budapest, Hungary, on August 14, 2015.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Mohai
Part of Banksy's world
Here, in September 2015, Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina performed at the closing party of the "Dismaland" project by graffiti artist Banksy. The street artist described his subversive, pop-up exhibition at the derelict seafront Tropicana lido in the UK as a "bemusement park."
Image: Getty Images/J.Dyson
How to start a revolution
Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova wrote her own guide to individual freedom in the face of totalitarianism, "How to Start a Revolution," which was published in 2016. She soon toured the book around the world, stopping in Berlin and at the Lit.Cologne literary festival (above).
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
Provoking the corrupt security state
In 2016, Pussy Riot were again indulging in political provocation at home, releasing a film clip to their new protest song "Chaika" that mocks corrupt and violent Russian security agencies – under whom the jailed band members faced "endless humiliations" – after it was revealed that the country's chief prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, had links to the local mafia.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/D.Sinyakov
Trump meets Putin
Pussy Riot's criticism not only targets Russian authorities: At this performance in a San Francisco theater in February, a caricature of Donald Trump accompanied Vladimir Putin on stage. During the event, they discussed the current state of human rights in Russia, and how LGBT individuals and political activists in prison are affected.
Image: Getty Images/T.Mosenfelder
The struggle continues
On August 6, 2017, Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Olga Borisova held flares and a banner on a bridge near a prison in Yakutsk, Russia to protest the jailing of film director Oleg Sentsov. He was arrested in Crimea – which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – and convicted by a Russian military court of conspiracy to commit terror attacks. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Zona.media
Live in Germany
In September 2017, the group performed their "feminist punk manifesto" in Germany at Frankfurt's Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. Titled "Riot Days," the concert is based on band member Maria Alyokhina's eponymous book that describes her co-founding of Pussy Riot in 2011 with Nadya Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B.Roessler
Shutting down Trump Tower
In October 2017, the group stormed Trump Tower in New York City to voice opposition to Putin and Trump and the incarceration of political prisoners. Wearing their famous balaclavas, they held up a banner once again urging the release of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov. Police closed the 58-story skyscraper for a half hour.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Szenes
Protest on the pitch
Dressed as police officers, members of the collective invaded the pitch during the World Cup final in Russia, interrupting the game. According to the group, the goals of the protest were for the Russian authorities to free all political prisoners, stop illegal arrests at public rallies and allow political competition in the country. The members were sentenced to 15 days of jail time.
Image: Reuters/D. Staples
A suspected poisoning
One of the Pussy Riot activists at the FIFA World Cup protest was Pyotr Verzilov, who is also a publisher at MediaZona, an online news site that focuses on human rights violations in Russia's penal system. In September 2018, the dissident experienced symptoms of poisoning. He was sent to Berlin for treatment and was placed under police protection. He recovered.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Cinema for Peace Foundation
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The FSB's revenge?
To this day, the pastor still does not fully understand the real reason for the mistreatment. He recalls an incident in 2012: "An FSB major demanded I speak to him. He told me he was investigating religious groups in Sochi. He stressed the fact that there was an increased terrorist threat in Russia. Then, he asked me to give him a list of my congregation members including their personal details."
Kolyasnikov's lawyer Alexander Popkov believes that many factors are at play in this case. Firstly, the situation in Russian has worsened because of the events in Ukraine. Furthermore, Russian security agencies want to keep religious communities in their country under control. "And Kolyasnikov has refused to be controlled," claims Popkov.
