Bohdan Ziza has finally had the Russian citizenship foisted on him after Russia’s invasion of Crimea revoked, with this at his own, repeated, request. The 30-year-old Yevpatoria street artist and political prisoner, sentenced to 15 years’ maximum-security imprisonment for a protest against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, first stated clearly during his final address to the ‘court’ back in 2023 that he rejected the Russian language and the Russian passport without which the aggressor state has made it impossible to live on occupied territory. In 2023, he went on hunger strike, demanding that the citizenship be revoked, and also in an attempt to draw attention to the plight of all Ukrainian political prisoners in Russian captivity. It is typical that Russia, which has already forcibly stripped Crimean Tatar political prisoners of their citizenship in order to deport them, was in no hurry to revoke this when asked.
Bohdan’s Ziza, Oleksandra Barkova, explained to Suspilne Crimea that for her brother rejection of Russia citizenship was a principled step and one with symbolic significance. Russian citizenship had been foisted on him and other Crimeans merely because Russia made it impossible to live on occupied territory without it.
His family hope that the lack of Russian citizenship may also increase the chances for his inclusion in the exchange list of prisoners. Russia is, certainly, using the fact of Russian citizenship as an excuse for not releasing the very large number of Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russian captivity. It is less clear, unfortunately, whether the fact that Ziza has revoked this citizenship will expedite his release. While his rejection of citizenship does not seem to have caused any problems thus far in the prison colony, it seems hard to imagine that the aggressor state would react well, given that it sentenced the young man to 15 years on absurd ‘terrorism’ charges in revenge for a protest in support of Ukraine.
Ziza’s family also report that he has refused to work in the prison colony, in order to not finance Russia's war against Ukraine.
The conditions in Russian penal institutions are appalling, and there are very real concerns for the life of several Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners, including Amet Suleimanov, and both Halyna Dovhopola and Khalil Mambetov, who are 70 and in poor health. Bohdan Ziza is younger and was in good health before his arrest. This, however, is his fourth year in Russian captivity and his sister stresses that there are health issues which the family are trying to resolve. Bohdan is held in the notorious Vladimir Central prison, and his sister points out that, as well as the constant draughts and dampness everywhere, her brother suffers from the fact that the men are seldom allowed out for so-called walks (in a less enclosed part of the prison colony, with this at least providing relatively fresh air). Such deprivation is one of the means of torture against the prisoners, Oleksandra adds.
Bohdan Ziza (Azizov) will be turning 31 on 23 November 2025, his fourth birthday in Russian captivity for a courageous, if ill-thought-out, protest over Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The Yevpatoria street artist and activist had been devastated by the full-scale invasion and the atrocities that Russia had committed, especially in Bucha. While still imprisoned in a Crimean SIZO [remand prison], Ziza wrote in in a letter: “Any person who fails to speak out against this war, who does nothing to stop it, is a passive accomplice to this terrible crime committed by the Russian regime. I decided to at least do something to express my opposition.”
At 4 a.m. on 16 May 2022, Ziza splashed paint in the blue and yellow colours of Ukraine’s flag over the entrance to the occupation administration building in Yevpatoria. It was not a totally peaceful protest, as he had two Molotov cocktails with him. It was, however, at a time when the building would not be occupied and it was certainly no act of terrorism. Ziza later explained that the two petrol bombs were basically just to give more impact to the video clip that he was making of the protest. In its statement, declaring Ziza a political prisoner, the Memorial Support for Political Prisoners Project pointed out that the young artist had filmed the protest on his mobile home and then prepared a video, accompanied by his commentary, which he posted on a new Instagram page. The accompanying text called on “all members of the graffiti culture, all vandals in Crimea, in Russia and Belarus”, reminding them that such a graffiti culture was, in the first instance, protest and that there was no better time to express this than now.
This was by no means Ziza’s first night-time act of ‘political vandalism’ and he had understood that he could end up detained. He failed, however, to understand the degree to which Russia had dropped all pretence following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ziza was seized immediately, although it was only after the FSB had used torture to extract a ‘confession’ (in fact, multiple ‘alternative confessions’) that he was formally arrested and remanded in custody. He was initially fined under one of the charges rushed into legislation after Russia’s full-scale invasion (‘discrediting the Russian army]), but he was not released from the SIZO. Soon afterwards very serious charges were laid, with Ziza accused of: ‘an act of terrorism (Article 205 § 1 of Russia’s criminal code); the threat to carry out such a supposed act of terrorism (under the same article); public calls to terrorism (Article 205.2 § 2) and vandalism prompted by political enmity (Article 214 § 2).
During his final address to the Southern District Military Court in Rostov (Russia), Ziza said that he regretted that his elderly grandmother, who had brought him up and now needs his help, would be left alone. He had, however, acted in accordance with his conscience. He was a Ukrainian, he said, and it caused him pain to see what was happening to his country. He acknowledged that his protest had been foolish, and that he should have expressed his views in a different way but rejected the ’terrorism’ charges and asked if his protest really warranted the 18-year sentence demanded by the Russian prosecutor. “Russian law gives shorter sentences even for murder, and I spoke out against murder.”
“I am also an ordinary citizen of my country, but of Ukraine, and who is not accustomed to be silent in the face of lawlessness. I am not alone in this ‘aquarium’ [the effectively cage that he is held in] today. There are over 200 people with me. These are Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russian prisons on fabricated charges. Many of them are Crimean Tatars who have yet again faced Russian repression. I am myself half Crimean Tatar and it is painful to see what is happening to our people.”
Russia’s Southern District Military Court has been handing down huge sentences against Crimean Tatar and other Ukrainian political prisoners since 2014, and both the prosecutor, Vladislav Kuznetsov, who demanded an 18-year sentence, and presiding ‘judge’ Roman Plisko have taken part in many other political trials. On 6 June 2023, a panel of ‘judges’ under Plisko found Ziza ‘guilty’ of all four charges and sentenced him to 15 years’ harsh-regime (maximum-security) imprisonment, with the first four years to be in a prison, the worst of Russia’s penal institutions. In Ziza’s case, this has been the Vladimir Central Prison.
This sentence was, predictably, upheld on 27 September 2023 by a panel of ‘judges’, under Maksym Panin from the Military court of appeal in Vlasikha (Moscow region).
Please write to Bohdan! Letters tell him, and Moscow, that he is not forgotten. Letters, unfortunately, need to be in Russian and handwritten. Please don’t worry about mistakes! You could also just send the following, perhaps with a picture or photo.
Привет,
Желаю Вам крепкого здоровья и надеюсь, Вы скоро вернетесь домой, к своим родным. Простите, что мало пишу – мне трудно писать по-русски, но мы все о Вас помним.
[Hi. I wish you good health and hope that you will soon be home, with your family. I’m sorry that this letter is short – it’s hard for me to write in Russian., but you are not forgotten. ]
Address, which can be in Russian or English
600020 Россия, г. Владимир, ул Большая Нижегородская, д. 67, ФКУ Т-2,
Аяизову, Богдану Сергеевичу, г.р. 1994
[or in English
600020 Russia, Vladimir, 67 Bolshaya Nizhegorodskaya St.
Bogdan Sergeevich Azizov, b. 1994]
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