'I realized that a lot of injustice is created by the hands of the system...that violates the rights of citizens, illegally arrests them, inflicts physical damage, and issues absurd decisions and decrees,' says lawyer Sofia Gominova.
“I have always had a keen sense of justice,” Gominova told a Reuters reporter based in Poland.
Defending Kremlin critics comes with considerable risks in wartime Russia, where even schoolchildren and pensioners have been punished for dissenting over the war. The St. Petersburg Bar Association said 222 lawyers had joined since last March, bringing its total to 4,692, but said it did not have information on how many defend activists. It said seven of the new lawyers have since had their memberships suspended or discontinued, without citing reasons.The Moscow Bar Association did not reply to a request for data.Acquittals in Russian courts are extremely rare overall, and critics say the country’s justice system is highly politicized.
Lawyers are sometimes protesters’ last communication conduit during lengthy trials held behind closed doors. Several Russian lawyers have attracted the attention – and condemnation – of authorities, not only for defending critics of the invasion but also for expressing their own opposition., is serving a 22-year sentence for treason, faces up to 10 years in prison himself after he wrote on Facebook that Russian forces were engaging in “extreme Nazi practices.”
Rudenko, who has family in Ukraine but whose husband and brother are both soldiers in the Russian armed forces, attended a few anti-war rallies and handed out copies of George Orwell’s dystopian and anti-authoritarian novel “1984” to passers-by. In interviews, some younger lawyers with fewer years of experience of Russia’s justice system said they were determined to represent anti-war dissenters but found the work exhausting.
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