Over the course of a month, the Chekists from Yaroslavl turned the life of one family into hell: сriminal cases were initiated against the daughter and mother who didn't support the war in Ukraine.

The FSB in Yaroslavl accused a local resident named Svetlana Zotova of justifying terrorism and inciting extremism based on two comments she made on Telegram. Her eldest daughter, Valeria, has been in pre-trial detention since mid-February, charged with attempted terrorism. According to the FSB, she allegedly attempted to set fire to a collection point for aid to mobilized individuals. Zotova is convinced that the criminal case against her daughter is an FSB provocation. Last year, Valeria got acquainted with a certain "Andrey from the Armed Forces of Ukraine," who persistently suggested that she commit arson or carry out sabotage on the railway.

Svetlana and her husband, Igor, have three children. Their eldest son moved out long ago, their middle daughter, 19-year-old Valeria, works in a store, and their youngest daughter, 13, attends school. On the evening of February 16, Lera left home, telling her mother that she wouldn't be gone for long and would return soon. As Svetlana recalls, her daughter seemed different that day, not eating anything. Normally talkative and open, she unexpectedly became silent. Svetlana attempted to talk to her daughter, but Valeria didn't explain anything and attributed her subdued mood to feeling unwell. "She spent the whole day lying in her bed and hardly left the room," Svetlana added. On that day, Svetlana's husband was on a business trip, and their youngest daughter was staying overnight at a friend's house. By late evening, Valeria hadn't returned, and around midnight, law enforcement officers burst into their apartment, opening the door with the girl's key. According to the mother, Valeria herself wasn't present during the search. The officers behaved rudely, insulted and threatened her, stating that she, along with her daughter, would also face criminal charges. "They started telling me that I hadn't raised my daughter properly. They asked how I felt about the Special Military Operation. I immediately told them that I was categorically against it, and we started arguing. Then these masked individuals began saying nasty things when they saw blue and yellow ribbons in my room. They said that my whole apartment was adorned with the colors of the Ukrainian flag," she added. The investigative actions concluded closer to three in the morning without an interrogation. Svetlana spent the whole night trying to find out where her daughter was.

Details about Valeria's case appeared in the media a few days later. On February 20, the Telegram channel "Yaroslavl Main," which many associate with the activities of the security forces, published a video of the girl's arrest. The footage shows Zotova being forced out of a car, pushed face down into the snow, and handcuffed. Then, sitting in front of the camera, Valeria, stumbling over her words, uncertainly states that she "photographed buildings where the collection point for mobilized individuals is located, provided information about its location, sent coordinates," and received 7,000 rubles for it. Pro-government publications that released the arrest video emphasized, "According to preliminary data, the detainee was raised in a troubled family and used drugs.

Svetlana believes that her daughter has become a victim of provocation by the special services. The woman claims that Valeria met a certain Andrey on one of the Ukrainian Telegram channels in the autumn of last year. Andrey introduced himself as a Ukrainian army serviceman. Zotova was aware of her daughter's new acquaintance, saw their correspondence, and asked her to be cautious in communication, saying, "I know that FSB agents are active on these Ukrainian channels." Valeria told her mother that Andrey, during their correspondence, asked her to set fire to a railway cabinet responsible for the switch or place a bag in a specific location. They offered generous rewards for these tasks. Svetlana urged her daughter to stop communicating. The daughter promised to put Andrey on a "blacklist" but never did. According to the mother, Andrey wrote to her daughter in Ukrainian, stating that he was at war, and if anything happened to him, his commander would inform her. When Lera asked for a photo, Andrey replied that they were not allowed to show themselves.

Before the New Year holidays, Svetlana noted that this "commander" started calling her daughter persistently, trying to convince her to do something or undermine something. Valeria refused. On one occasion, she answered the phone herself and said that her daughter wouldn't go anywhere. "He started suggesting that I leave a bag somewhere, and they would activate the explosive themselves. Then they offered to send this bag to our home!" said Zotova, the elder.
They then started asking Valeria's friends to carry out their "assignment" since the daughter refused. "I told him that all of Lera's friends support Putin and wouldn't agree," Zotova joked. "My daughter is a complete scaredy-cat. I'm shocked that she eventually went somewhere." In January, Andrey resumed communication with Valeria. According to her mother, he called her daughter on February 16, but she didn't tell anything and quietly left home. A couple of days later, the Yaroslavl District Court sent Valeria Zotova to pre-trial detention on charges of attempting to commit a terrorist act (Part 3, Article 30, Part 1, Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the FSB version, the girl intended to set fire to a building in the village of Karabikha (15 km from Yaroslavl), where locals gathered aid for the military. The arrest of their middle daughter came as a complete surprise to the family, and they are only now recovering from what happened. "My heart didn't skip a beat that day. If I had known, I wouldn't have let her out of the house that day. I blame myself," Svetlana said with a trembling voice.

Svetlana Zotova was convinced that sooner or later they would come for her too. During the search, law enforcement officers reminded her of her protest activities. Before the war, Svetlana staged solitary pickets in the center of Yaroslavl in support of politician Alexei Navalny and former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal. Last October, Valeria's mother wrote "Glory to Ukraine" in red paint on a food kiosk and left a bouquet of yellow and blue chrysanthemums with the note "Forgive us, Ukraine" nearby. Police detained Svetlana as she was returning home. The Yaroslavl Court imposed an administrative fine of 30,000 rubles on the woman under the article on discrediting the Russian army. She did not file an appeal, nor did she pay the fine. "There were two employees there, offering coffee and water. I refused, telling them that they might want to poison me. They tried to extract information from me, asking if I had contacted journalists. Then a third employee in uniform rushed over. He came up to me, started yelling and threatening me: 'Our guys are dying there, and you, you fucking creature, we'll beat the shit out of you now, and you'll tell us everything!' I pushed him away. He started asking about my attitude towards the Self-Defense Forces. I told him to do whatever they wanted, even kill me—I have an extremely negative attitude towards them," Zotova shared.

Sveta was provided with a court-appointed lawyer, but she refused to answer any questions. She managed to negotiate with the investigator to come for questioning on March 16th with her own lawyer. She received legal assistance from the human rights organization "Zone of Solidarity." The next day, Sveta was formally charged with incitement to terrorism and extremism through the internet (part 2 of Article 205.2 and part 2 of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Once again, she refused to testify, citing Article 51 of the Constitution. Sveta herself was released and placed under travel restrictions. According to the investigation, Sveta left several comments in the Telegram channels "Anarchist Fighter" and "Ukraine 24/7". One of them appeared in January under a post in the "Ukraine 24/7" channel with a video where former US European Command Commander Ben Hodges discussed Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes on Crimea and the land corridor connecting the peninsula to Russia.  Two other comments were made on a post dated September 23, 2022, by a user with the pseudonym "11927" in the "Anarchist Fighter" group: "Peaceful protests are bullshit" and "Russian people, you have a chance to make a great revolution in 2022. Overthrow this criminal power before it leads the world to a nuclear catastrophe." The FSB interpreted these two comments as "incitement to extremist activities, specifically incitement to commit a crime based on political hatred or enmity." Zotova does not acknowledge authorship of the comments and adds that during the questioning, the investigator did not read them aloud or allow her to read them in their entirety.
After her daughter's arrest, Sveta hasn't seen her anymore as the investigator does not grant permission for visits. Valeria only sent her a long letter from the detention center. "I wrote her a response and cried. My daughter asked for forgiveness. I replied that there was nothing to forgive..." Sveta struggled to hold back tears. "Lera is glad to receive letters; someone from Germany wrote to her, and she received a package from Moscow.