Press Release, 3.07.2026

Photo: Yevgenia Berkovich / Photo by the support group of Yevgenia Berkovich on Telegram

Is it permitted or not for political prisoner Yevgenia Berkovich, a theatre director sentenced to 5 years and 7 months in a penal colony under the article on “justifying terrorism”, to write, read and make phone calls from the Kostroma penal colony? This question was widely discussed in March, following a publication by Novaya Gazeta, which stated that the colony administration was not allowing Berkovich to keep diaries, engage in creative work, or telephone her family. Anna Cherepanova, a deputy of the Veliky Novgorod City Duma and Deputy Chairwoman of Yabloko, responded at the time to the violations of the rights of Yevgenia Berkovich and other women prisoners at the Kostroma colony, submitting enquiries to the prosecutor’s office and the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights. A response arrived on 5 June.

Following a request from the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, an inspection of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) was carried out, the results of which were sent to Anna Cherepanova, Novgorod Yabloko has reported.

According to the response letter from the Human Rights Commissioner:

• Yevgenia Berkovich is a member of the Vdokhnovenie (Inspiration) theatre studio, and takes part in theatrical productions and other creative events;
• During her time at the penal colony (from February 2025 to May 2026), the convicted woman was granted more than 150 telephone calls, approximately once every three days;
• On the basis of a written request from Yevgenia, four notebooks containing her notes were transferred to the personal belongings store on 25 March;
• Prisoners are allowed to shower according to a schedule, three times a week.

“We do not know how accurate this information is,” Novgorod Yabloko noted. “It remains to be hoped that the living conditions of political prisoners Yevgenia Berkovich, paediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova, nurse Olga Menshikh, journalist Antonina Favorskaya, and other convicted women at the Kostroma colony have become more tolerable.”

It should be noted that in March this year, Deputy Anna Cherepanova had also appealed in defence of political prisoner Nika Novak, who is held at a penal colony in Irkutsk. The response from the office of the Commissioner for Human Rights also contained information about her. Novgorod Yabloko described this data as “troubling”: according to the Commissioner’s office, the journalist was declared a persistent violator of the prison regime and moved to strict-regime conditions.