An anti-war campaigner who faces years in prison if she returns home to Russia is fighting to stay in the US.
Valeriia Razheva, 23, co-founded the US branch of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAWR) in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The movement has been labelled an “undesirable organisation” by Moscow, under a law that allows prosecutors to target foreign groups they deem “a threat to the foundation of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, the defense capability of the country or the security of the state”.
Those affiliated can receive lengthy prison sentences if they fail to shut them down.
“According to the law, if you have a leadership position, you will face up to six years in prison,” Ms Razheva said. “People can be prosecuted and persecuted for simply donating $5 to an undesirable organisation and face charges of one to three years in prison.”
The activist moved to the United States on a J1 visa as part of the Year of Exchange in America for Russians (YEAR) programme four years ago. She was the first member of her family to relocate to the US and described America as “paradise”.
But when her visa expired, she found out she was required to return to Russia for two years before she could change her immigration status. Ms Razheva said that if she were to go home, she would face “severe political persecution” as her anti-war, anti-Kremlin, pro-LGBT+ and feminist activism has been targeted by the Russian government.
Even the exchange programme which sent her over to the US was labeled undesirable and has now been blacklisted. She said that her friends who returned to Russia after going on the exchange programme had been interrogated.
She has applied for political asylum in the US but her case is currently pending. In the meantime, Ms Razheva is fundraising for a lawyer who will file a J1 waiver that would allow her to stay in the States.
However, she is concerned that with Donald Trump’s anti-migrant rhetoric, her efforts to stay in the US could be delayed or outright rejected.
“Trump is firing so many immigration officers and judges, I don’t know how the situation will improve,” she said.
As well as the FAWR, Ms Razheva is affiliated with three other “undesirable” organisations. She is a student and part-time worker at Bard College, the first international higher education body to be given the designation.
She also previously managed the now-closed Helpdesk Media, an anti-war news organisation that ran a helpline to speak to Russians who fear persecution for their political opinions.
Ms Razheva says she has faced intimidation for her views and her personal information was leaked in pro-war, pro-Putin Telegram chats.
“People say that it’s all Kremlin bots and I shouldn’t be scared,” she said. “People in Russia are scared to even like an independent post from anti-war media because there are literal criminal cases against people who reposted news published by an undesirable organisation.”
“Growing up in Russia, I saw the cruelty of the regime of the Kremlin government,” she continued. “I saw the corruption. During my lifetime, it stayed inside of the country. But the moment Putin invaded Ukraine, it wasn’t just an internal problem. It felt so real and scary, and it's spreading. Another independent country is now suffering because of our dictator,” she said.
Her situation is perhaps further complicated by Mr Trump’s recent interventions in the Ukraine war, repeating Kremlin talking points about Ukraine’s president and generally appearing sympathetic to Mr Putin.
Responding to Mr Trump’s jibe that Volodymyr Zelensky was a “dictator”, she compared it to a “scene from a surrealist absurd movie when you talk about Putin, who has been a president for 25 years.
“I’m so scared that Trump is befriending Putin”, she said. “I came to a country where I thought that dictatorship was not possible. I don’t feel any type of peace conversations with Putin are legitimate.”
