Fabricating a Terrorist

Valentina Tagirova and her daughter were evacuated under false pretenses from their native Donbas to Russia in February 2022, soon after the start of Russia's invasion. In 2023, after an anonymous Telegram account possibly connected to the FSB manipulated her, Tagirova was arrested on charges of terrorism and her daughter was sent to an orphanage. Last week Holod published her story.

In 2014, Tagirova had just given birth when pro-Russian separatists began fighting the Ukrainian military. She considered leaving Donetsk, but the fear of risking her baby's life and the sudden death of her mother forced her to stay.

Despite the war, Tagirova enjoyed her life in Donbas. The 34-year-old worked as a hairdresser in her own beauty salon, went to the gym, traveled, and took her daughter to her extracurriculars. She didn't keep up with politics, a decision she said she now regrets.

In 2021, the hairdresser's Ukrainian passport was about to expire. Going into Ukrainian territory required time and effort, so she got a Russian ID instead. Tagirova said, "Now I really regret it; I lived well without a Russian passport, and as soon as I received it, problems began in my life." 

On February 22, 2022, she was offered money from the Russian government in exchange for going to Russia for two days to receive it. The next day, Tagirova and her daughter boarded a bus to Taganrog and were later told to get on a train to Tolyatti. When she arrived, journalists surrounded her, but she was rushed to another bus to Samara. She only had access to the internet on February 25, once the full-scale invasion of Ukraine had started. Her friends told her it was too dangerous to go back to Donbas. Tagirova said, "To put it mildly, I was deceived."

Tagirova and her daughter were forced to start a new life in a temporary relocation center in Samara. Eventually, she acclimated to her new city, got a new job, recovered her car from Donbas, sent her daughter to school, and considered buying an apartment. On February 9, 2023, things changed after she received a Telegram message from an account named "Platon."

"Platon" knew everything about her: where she and her daughter lived and who her relatives were. He tried to persuade her to acquire the raw materials to carry out an act of arson. Tagirova refused, but "Platon" threatened to harm her family. She thought that if she followed his instructions everything would end.

On March 9, two FSB officers came to the temporary relocation center looking for a lost phone. An officer interrogated her while another inspected her two mobile devices. As soon as they left, she received a message from "Platon": "Valentina is everything ok with you? I feel some sort of tension, what happened to you?"

On April 18, Tagirova left acetone in a location chosen by "Platon." She was detained for terrorism on the spot by the same FSB officer who had inspected her phone in March. After her arrest, everything started to make sense. FSB officers regularly came to the relocation center and interrogated its residents. Tagirova said, "That is why Platon knew too."

Tagirova's daughter was taken to an orphanage, and it was several months before Tagirova knew what happened to her child. Tagirova's father picked up the girl from the orphanage and later sent her to Poland to live with her grandmother. Since her daughter now lives in another country, the former hairdresser cannot call her child from prison. She has not heard her daughter's voice since she was arrested.

In jail, Tagirova began losing her hair and did not have access to basic hygiene products. Then she crossed paths with Polina Yevtushenko, who was charged with the same crimes as she was. Yevtushenko wrote to human rights advocates, who helped bring Tagirova's story to light. Since October 2023, the two women have become cellmates, helping the former hairdresser cope with being in a pre-trial center. 

Tagirova told Holod, "I am still in shock that I'm in prison (...) It turned out that in Russia it is very easy to make a criminal out of a common person and put them behind bars."

If convicted, she will face 10 years in prison.