Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Time	Event
2:57p	The sixth report about slavery in Russia Zarina, one of the slaves freed from the “Produkty” grocery store, just got a phone call from Zhansulu Istambekova’s own blood sister, no less. Sputtering threats, she demanded that Zarina immediately recant her testimony against Zhansulu and resume work at the slavery den, which she referred to as simply “the store.” Meanwhile, in the Kazakh city of Shymkent, Zhansulu has been hard at work trying to intimidate her ex-slaves by threatening to launch a series of TV programs on KTK, a nationwide commercial TV channel sponsored by Zhansulu herself. The series would center on Zhansulu’s “ungrateful employees” fleeing from her and her “wonderful store,” all while making slanderous statements against their “good employer.” Saltanat, a woman who had spent more than 17 years working for Zhansulu and knew a great deal about the slaver's criminal past, has gone missing. Saltanat’s children, little Amir and 14-year-old Asel, are also missing. The ex-slaves fear Saltanat and her children have been silenced forever. If left at large, the Istambekovs will continue to pose a mortal danger to their former slaves. Only growing pressure from the media can persuade the government to intervene. We urge everyone to spread this report, together with our other reports, to bring public attention to the Istambekovs’ heinous crimes. "My mistress ordered her guard Beka to break my fingers on both hands." Although the women, including Zarina, declined to openly discuss the brutal violence they had endured, they still agreed to share the most graphic memories with their lawyer. "The police knew everything—they knew what was going on at the store." The ex-slaves also confirmed that the grocery store had been frequently visited by police officers when off duty. They would come to pick up bribes paid on Zhansulu Istambekova’s orders. Officer Nassif would be paid 10,000 rubles and his partner, Officer Dmitry, 15,000 rubles. For every child born to the slaves, the police were entitled to an extra 1000 rubles. Author: Victoria Lomasko Translation: Valentine Sergeyev First report Second report  Third report  Fourth report  Fifth report  Sixth report Seventh report All seven reports in russian (Comment on this)
3:24p	The third report about slavery in Russia "The police in Uzbekistan said, 'Why don't you go to that address and free them yourself?'" Lawyers have begun questioning the ex-slaves and searching for possible witnesses. Bakiya’s mother has received some good news, the first in a very long time. She found it comforting to know that Zhansulu’s sister, Sholpan Istambekova, was imprisoned on charges of human trafficking back in 2002. The not-so-good news was that one year later, in 2003, Sholpan was granted pardon by President Vladimir Putin. There is now growing evidence of slave labor being used in Sholpan’s stores, where REN TV reporters were physically assaulted by store workers while trying to investigate. Today, I had a conversation with Mutabar, 20. I asked her how she ended up as a slave, and it turns out that her story is unlike those of the other women. Mutabar is an aspiring pop singer from Uzbekistan. Through her connections, Zhansulu Istambekova lured Mutabar to Moscow, ostensibly to assist the singer in shooting her own music video. Even though Mutabar had never traveled to Moscow before and had almost zero knowledge of Russian, she still accepted. When she became a slave, nobody was trying to hurt her, force her to work, or starve her to death; on the contrary, Mutabar was allowed to eat, sleep, and even occasionally treat herself to a manicure and pedicure. Naturally, the less privileged slaves got a little puzzled by this. To clear things up, Zhansulu said that Mutabar was going to be sold to Arabs as a human sex toy. And then activists came along just in time to rescue the slaves from their captors. "Why are the police not helping, and what can folks like us do when the police decide to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to everything? Is money really that important these days?" An ex-slave looking at a family photo of the Istambekovs, trying to identify criminals. The ex-slaves hope that Zhansulu's return path to Kazakhstan may be finally cut off, as Kairat Balabiev, Zhansulu’s wealthy and influential lover, is now reportedly being tracked by the police. This could seriously hurt Zhansulu's chances. Author: Victoria Lomasko Translation: Valentine Sergeyev Author: Victoria Lomasko Translation: Valentine Sergeyev First report Second report  Third report  Fourth report  Fifth report  Sixth report Seventh report All seven reports in russian (Comment on this)

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