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Alyona Popova

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Alyona Popova
Алёна Попова
Born
Alyona Vladimirovna Popova[1]

(1983-02-15) 15 February 1983 (age 41)[1]
Yekaterinburg, Russia, Soviet Union
NationalityRussian
Years active2013-
Political partyYabloko

Alyona Vladimirovna Popova (Russian: Алёна Владимировна Попова; born on 15 February 1983) is a Russian human rights activist who is known for her digital campaign against domestic violence in Russia, and as one of the founders, together with Alexandra Mitroshina, of a social media flash mob with the catch phrase, "I did not want to die" (#ЯНеХотелаУмирать).[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Biography

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Alyona Popova was born in Yekaterinburg on 15 February 1983,[1] later settled in Novosibirsk, where she lived until 1999,[1] and moved to Moscow in 2000.[1] She began her career as a journalist in 1998, leading regional broadcasting projects in Yekaterinburg.[10] From 2001 to 2003 she worked as a parliamentary correspondent for the Globus news agency, covering the work of the State Duma and the Federation Council.[10]

Popova earned a law degree from Kutafin Moscow State Law University and a journalism degree from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2005.[11][12][10]

In 2008, she founded and became the CEO of the VideoSnack project, which provides video content for mobile devices in Russia, Italy, France, the United States, and Canada.[10] In 2011, she simultaneously launched two entrepreneurship-focused projects: Startup Poster (Rusbase), supporting the market for venture projects and investments in Russia; and Startup Women, aimed at developing women's IT entrepreneurship in Russia.[10]

By 2010, Popova began volunteering. After taking part in extinguishing fires in the Moscow Oblast and in Siberia,[10] she founded the volunteer organization "Civil Corps", a disaster-relief organization.[10]

With her focus on domestic violence issues, she launched the project Ti Ne Odna (You Are Not Alone) in 2016, aimed at protecting women's rights and combating domestic violence. Later, she began trolling pro-Kremlin politicians by stuffing the letterboxes of MPs with photographs of battered women, along with long printed lists containing their names.[13] According to Popova and to official records, domestic violence kills at least 12,000 women in Russia each year.[13] Nevertheless, in February 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin softened domestic violence legislation, making it easier for abusers to harm women.[13]

On 3 April 2018, the Russian government refused to allow a protest against sexual harassment. Popova said city authorities told organizers that planned demonstration could not be held because another public event had already been scheduled on Manezh Square at around the same time.[14] The rally had originally been planned for 29 March, but was postponed due to a mall fire in Kemerovo that killed 64 people.[14] On 12 April, she was arrested for the rally and for a call on Leonid Slutsky's resignation from the State Duma.[15] She was fined with 20,000 rubles by the court for violating the protest law.[16][15]

Popova's political aspirations began to take root while she embraced volunteering, philanthropy and activism: she was nominated by the party "Fair Russia" to the State Duma of the 6th convocation, and had been registered.[10] She later unsuccessfully ran in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election on behalf of the Civilian Power party, as she was denied registration. In 2014, she ran in the elections to the Moscow City Duma of the 6th convocation, and was registered.[10]

In the fall of 2018, Popova launched the Ethics and Technology project, which aims to develop reasonable boundaries and methods for using technology so that it serves society and does not cause harm.[10] Concerned about privacy violations, on 7 October 2019 Popova filed a lawsuit against the Moscow government for violating privacy rights by using facial recognition cameras to identify anti-Kremlin protesters.[17] The hearing was scheduled for 21 October[16] The court ruled that the implementation didn't violate such action on 3 March 2020.[8]

Popova joined the Yabloko party and in September 2021, again ran for the State Duma elections on a platform of strengthening domestic violence laws.[18][19][20] Her bid for the Preobrazhensky constituency was unsuccessful, as she received 6.92% percent of the votes.[21] She continues to advocate women running for political office in order to address current issues in Russia.[22]

On 6 October 2022, the Ministry of Justice of Russia added Popova to the register of individuals and foreign agents.[23]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Попова Алёна Владимировна | Женщины и власть" (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  2. ^ "Russia's Version of #MeToo Has Struggled to Take Off — Until Now". Time
  3. ^ "'I didn't want to die': Why are Russians using bloody make-up to tackle domestic abuse?". Dhruti Shah and Yaroslava Kiryukhina. BBC News
  4. ^ "Russia's Blogger And Journalist Alexandra Mitroshina Is On A Mission Of Empowering Women. Read Her Story Here" International Business Times
  5. ^ "'Whose Is It?' Ukrainian Activists Confront Russian Blogger In Kyiv, With Violent Results". Tony Wesolowsky. RFE/RL
  6. ^ "Russian women share selfies with painted injuries to push for stricter domestic violence laws". Kassidy Vavra. (July 25, 2019). MSN News
  7. ^ "Russian women post selfies with fake injuries to protest lax domestic violence law". Caroline Radnofsky and Elena Holodny. MSNBC.
  8. ^ a b "Russian court rules in favor of facial recognition over privacy claims". Reuters. 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  9. ^ "Блогер Митрошина рассказала о двойном значении хештега #ЯНеХотелаУмирать". 360tv.ru. 29 July 2019.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Попова Алена Владимировна". asafov.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  11. ^ "Alena Popova". Davis Center. Archived from the original on 2022-10-10. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  12. ^ "Alena Popova". interview-her.com. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  13. ^ a b c Ferris-Rotman, Amie (2018-02-22). "Trolling The Patriarchy With Photos Of Battered Women - One Woman's Quest To Change Russia". Elle. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  14. ^ a b "Moscow Authorities Refuse To Allow Protest Against Sexual Harassment". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 3 April 2018. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  15. ^ a b Spring, Marianna (2018-04-12). "Russian activists fined for sexual harassment protest". the Guardian. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  16. ^ a b "Russian Activist Fights Use of Facial Recognition Technology". Human Rights Watch. 2019-10-18. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  17. ^ Luxmoore, Matthew (7 October 2019). "Russian Challenges Use Of Facial-Recognition Technology That Has Facilitated Protest Crackdown". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  18. ^ Hopkins, Valerie (2021-09-14). "Activists in Russia Push to Make Domestic Violence a Voting Issue". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  19. ^ "Russian feminist runs for Duma to take on domestic violence". The Associated Press. 2021-09-15. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  20. ^ Pavlova, Uliana (2021-09-16). "Russian Activist Crusades Against Domestic Violence in Duma Campaign". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  21. ^ "Сведения о проводящихся выборах и референдумах". www.moscow-city.vybory.izbirkom.ru. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  22. ^ Pavlova, Uliana (2021-10-06). "Russian Female Politicians Push to Encourage Women to Run for Office". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  23. ^ "Писатель Глуховский и рэпер Оксимирон внесены в реестры иноагентов". BBC News Русская служба (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-10-10.

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