Two Estonian citizens who crossed into Russia last winter seeking asylum have undergone inpatient psychiatric evaluations, one of them — 25-year-old Danil — said in a letter to the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona.
Both Estonians “underwent examination at a psychiatric hospital, but in different locations,” Danil wrote. They were transported to St. Petersburg from Pskov pretrial detention center No. 1, where a court had previously sent them.
Danil said he was afraid of ending up again at “Kresty,” because there “they didn’t even ask — they just gave you an injection.” “They declared me some kind of legally incompetent or mentally ill, which I completely disagree with,” Danil said, adding that he was ready to “undergo the evaluation again” at a different clinic.
Danil is currently serving a two-week quarantine “after St. Petersburg” at Pskov pretrial detention center No. 1, held in a solitary cell he describes as “very cold” and overrun with mice. “I already filed a complaint about this and about the fact that there are a lot of mice — I asked for a mousetrap! I’ll get sick faster from the cold and the mice here. They turned off the heating, so it got really cold,” Mediazona quoted from his letter.
Other inmates gave Danil — who arrived in Russia without any belongings — clothing, a mug, a spoon, and a plate. The detention center administration issued him a hygiene kit: soap, toothpaste, and a toothbrush. “But I never did get toilet paper and had to take some from a cellmate,” he added.
Danil traces his decision to seek asylum in Russia to “a crisis and many life circumstances” — specifically, that in Estonia, as he put it, “they started banning the Russian language in schools, and it became impossible to find work.” Without knowledge of Estonian, he said, he “couldn’t support himself” and “would most likely have ended up homeless.”
Mediazona and the Estonian newspaper Eesti Ekspress reported on Danil and on 42-year-old Rando — the second Estonian citizen, who crossed the Russian border over a frozen lake — in early May. The two men entered Russia independently in late January and early February and asked Russian authorities for international protection. Both were arrested on charges of illegally crossing the border and sent to Pskov pretrial detention center No. 1.
Svetlana Gannushkina, founder of the Civic Assistance Committee, which helps refugees and migrants, said the criminal case violates Article 31 of the 1951 Refugee Convention, since the Estonians had sought asylum in Russia. If convicted, she said, they face a brief prison term or a fine, followed by deportation. Under the charge brought against them, they face up to two years in a penal colony.
Despite his detention and the conditions inside, Danil has not given up hope that Russian authorities will grant him “political asylum” and eventually citizenship.
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