Anti-War Activists in Tallinn Pioneer Way to Expand Public Attention to Political Prisoners in Russia

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 30 – A small group of volunteers in the Estonian capital has come up with a new way to expand attention in the West to the plight of political prisoners in the Russian Federation by producing one-minute-long videos about each one and then posting them on social media.
    Many people in the West don’t know much about Russian political prisoners, Nata Lyubavskaya, the leader of the “Let’s Help Political Prisoners” project (novayagazeta.ee/articles/2024/11/29/khotim-pokazyvat-bezumie-etoi-repressivnoi-mashiny-aktivisty-iz-tallinna-sozdali-proekt-pomogaem-politzekam).
    They don’t read the increasingly infrequent stories about them, preferring instead to watch videos on their cellphones or laptops. To reach them, she says, her group of nine volunteers now produces short videos about the ones they know about and post them on social media.
    Among the places where their work can be see are facebook.com/HelpPolitzek/, instagram.com/help_politzek/ and tiktok.com/@helppolitzek. The group cooperates closely with other human rights organizations such as Memorial and hopes that others concerned with the fate of people in Russia will copy and thus extend the work of “Let’s Help Political Prisoners.”