Letters for Political Prisoners

POLITICAL PRISONERS IN RUSSIA AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

WHY AND HOW YOU SHOULD WRITE
TO THE KREMLIN’S POLITICAL PRISONERS

Unfortunately, letters written in languages other than Russian are censored. To send a letter, it must be translated into Russian. In addition, all services for correspondence with prisoners require any response from a political prisoner to be in the form of a scanned handwritten letter in Russian.

Taking this into account, some volunteers have decided to help with translating and sending letters. Following these instructions, you will be able to send a letter and receive a response allowing you to enter into an ongoing dialogue.

Write a letter in English

Remember that you must choose neutral topics to pass the censors. And do not write about the details of a criminal case or the particulars of a political prisoner.
Send a letter to our e-mail

You can contact us with your letter at letters4politicalprisoners@gmail.com.
In the subject line write: Letter for *addressee name*.
Send a donation to cover costs

Sending a letter costs money. You can send a donation equivalent to 500 rubles* in any convenient way and in any currency.
Just put the word “letter” with your name in the donation description.
*If your donation exceeds the cost of sending the letter the rest of your donation will go to the families of political prisoners.
Receive an e-mail response

It usually takes up to 5 working days for the censors to process the letter and pass it onto the prisoner. Processing the response takes another 5 days. And it takes us another 5 days to transcribe the letter and translate it.
OTHER GUIDES TO WRITING LETTERS TO POLITICAL PRISONERS

● Kremlin Prisoners: How to Write a Letter to a Political Prisoner (ZMINA)
● Letters across borders (ODF-INFO)
● Write to Russian political prisoners–No one should face injustice alone (OVD-Info)
● Write to Russia (Rights in Russia)