By Cathy Young
SVETLANA BAKHMINA, a Russian lawyer and mother, has never been involved in politics or public affairs. Yet this ordinary 39-year-old woman has become the famous yet invisible heroine of a drama that is both intensely personal and highly political - and that may have far-reaching effects on Russia's public life.
A former legal counsel for the Yukos oil company, Bakhmina has spent four years in a penal colony after being convicted of embezzling funds from the Yukos subsidiary Tomskneft (which disputed the
charges and denied incurring any losses). The case against her is widely believed to have been trumped up as part of the politically motivated persecution of her former boss, jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who angered then-President Vladimir Putin with his political activism and funding of opposition groups.
Having served half of her sentence, Bakhmina became eligible for parole in May. She has two sons, ages 7 and 11. She is also eight months pregnant. And, despite being commended as a model prisoner by colony authorities, she has been denied parole twice.
Bakhmina's defenders believe this harsh treatment is meant to pressure her into testifying against Khodorkovsky (who is facing new charges) and also reflects Putin's personal vendetta against Yukos defendants.
Recently, the Bakhmina case took a new turn. In September, a former classmate of Bakhmina's posted an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev asking him to pardon Bakhmina. Several days later, an Internet petition was launched. By late October, the petition had more than 60,000 signatures. On Oct. 30, in a rare media breakthrough, the case was discussed in the television debate show "K barieru!" ("Challenge to a Duel"), with writer Maria Arbatova facing off against veteran dissident Valeria Novodvorskaya.
Some commentators suggested that Novodvorskaya, known for her anti-Putin tirades, was set up to discredit the "Free Bakhmina" movement as a cause of loony radicals. But her occasional extreme comments (such as comparing Bakhmina's treatment to Nazi killings of pregnant Jewish women) were overshadowed by the repulsiveness of Arbatova, whose quasi-feminist argument against special treatment for women quickly devolved into cruel jeers at Bakhmina and her defenders.
The call-in vote tilted in Arbatova's favor, by about 68,000 to 56,000 votes. Many Russian bloggers believe it was rigged, claiming that calls to the pro-Novodvorskaya line repeatedly got a busy signal but calls to the pro-Arbatova line went through at once. Even so, it was a fairly small margin for a pro-government position. Interestingly, in an October poll, only 16 percent of Russians approved of the denial of parole to Bakhmina while 37 percent disapproved and the rest had no opinion.
There are now more than 85,000 signatures on the Bakhmina petition - including professionals, managers, and college students as well as homemakers, workers, and police officers. The accompanying comments offer a fascinating slice of Russian life. Some people appeal to Medvedev's Christian mercy; others say that the request should be a demand. Some blast Medvedev and Putin as "vicious clowns" or "criminals," or refer pointedly to Medvedev's lack of true authority. Some angrily denounce the current regime and its injustices while others sound poignantly resigned: "How sad that we live in such a time," or simply, "God help us."
Quite a few comments reflect Russian society's still-strong traditionalism - the belief that women and mothers have a special claim to compassion and that picking on a woman, especially a pregnant one, is unmanly. A kindergarten teacher takes a swipe at Putin's notorious macho displays: "Manliness is demonstrated by protecting women and children, not by showing off a muscular torso." The chivalry may be cloyingly retrograde, but this time it is helping mobilize Russian public opinion in the cause of human rights.
While there has been no official response to the petition, Bakhmina has been transferred from the penal colony to a clinic in a Moscow suburb. There is speculation that authorities may be looking for a way to release her without losing face.
Meanwhile, the movement for Bakhmina may become, in the words of writer Boris Akunin, "a seed of civil society." One petition signer, a Moscow mathematician, commented, "Svetlana, stay strong! With your help, Russians are opening their eyes!"
Sometimes, such unlikely heroes make history.