An inheritance of harassment. Daughter of journalist Irina Slavina detained for laying flowers at mother’s self‑immolation site

Margarita Murakhtaeva was detained today at her mother’s unofficial memorial in the city of Nizhny Novgorod as she laid flowers. At that site, her mother Irina Slavina died in an act of protest against the immense pressure she faced from the authorities.

Murakhtaeva said she wanted to lay flowers at the building of the regional police headquarters. “I arrived [at the Ministry of Internal Affairs building], there was a fence and a police van. Well, I thought, okay, I’ll go up, put down the flowers, stand for a bit, and leave. But police officers immediately approached me and started asking questions, asking for my documents, and taking pictures. I asked them in response: ‘On what grounds?’. They told me: ‘A notice came in that flowers would be brought on October 1.’ I was like: ‘And? Am I doing something illegal?’”, Murakhtaeva told Mediazona.

After that, the woman was taken to a police department to give a statement. 

Murakhtaeva has been repeatedly targeted by law enforcement, including being fined for an anti-war picket and facing charges of “discrediting” the army.

Irina Slavina, the founder and editor-in-chief of the independent news outlet Koza.Press, was a well-known figure in Nizhny Novgorod, celebrated for her reporting on corruption and political persecution. Her work made her a constant target for the authorities.

The final straw has been an aggressive raid on her apartment on October 1, 2020. At 6am, a dozen law enforcement officers, including members of the heavily armed riot police, forced their way into her home, cutting through the door. They were searching for evidence in connection with a criminal case against a local businessman, Mikhail Iosilevich, who was accused of involvement with an “undesirable organisation.” Slavina was merely a witness in the case.

The following day, Slavina went to the regional headquarters of the Interior Ministry and set herself on fire. In a final Facebook post, she wrote: “In my death, I ask you to blame the Russian Federation.”

The Investigative Committee has refused to open a criminal case three times. Investigators have attributed her death to a “mixed personality disorder,” and described her suicide as a “rational” and “conscious desire to leave life.” The prosecutor’s office later declared the raid on her home to have been legal.

In December 2020, Vladimir Putin commented on the case during his annual press conference, stating that he did not understand the reason for her suicide as she was not the subject of a criminal case. 

Slavina had been subjected to years of administrative and legal pressure. She was repeatedly fined for her journalism and activism, including for an article about a local official who had contracted Covid-19 and for a memorial action for the murdered opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.