The seventh report about slavery in Russia
This is Leila’s 6-year-old son, Bakhyt. His older sister, also born into slavery, was smuggled to Kazakhstan by Zhansulu Istambekova, who told Leila that the girl had been “trampled to death by a cow.”
Bakhyt was left at the “Produkty” grocery store to serve as a human plaything to his mistress’s son, a boy of the same age. Whenever that boy was beginning to show signs of boredom, it was a signal for Bakhyt to set to work packaging, hauling heavy food containers, or giving his mistress a massage. If Bakhyt was not “doing his job properly,” Zhansulu and her associate Beka would slam his head into an iron safe or a nearby wall. Although Bakhyt saw Leila every day, they were not allowed to speak to each other.
Now, Bakhyt wants to spend the whole day watching cartoons. His mother says that he sometimes gets in a playful mood, laughing or even fooling around like a normal child.



"Zhansulu treated us as animals for breeding more slaves."

In 2011, Leila married Seilkhan. He had come to Moscow looking for work, and he met Leila while working for one of Zhansulu Istambekova’s relatives. Noting Seilkhan’s interest in Leila, Zhansulu offered him a job as a truck driver and told him that he could share the basement with Leila and the rest of the slaves. He accepted. But unlike the slaves, Seilkhan was entitled to a monthly salary and no one dared to force him to do unpaid labor or harm him physically because the nature of his work provided him with ample opportunity for escape.

Zhansulu’s plan for Leila and Seilkhan was for them to work at the store until old age (or death), and for their children to grow up into obedient slaves. However, Leila refused even to think of devising a means of escape. She was too afraid for her son Bakhyt and she loved him too much to ever leave him.



"To Zhansulu, money is everything."

Leila said that Zhansulu came from a poor family and started off as a brothel keeper in Kazakhstan. The only person who knew everything about Zhansulu’s past was a woman named Saltanat, a distant relative of Zhansulu’s husband. Leaving her children Amir and Asel at the grocery store, Saltanat managed to make her escape after 17 years in servitude, just before activists came to the slaves’ rescue. She had promised to save everyone—or at least find a way to communicate—but that never materialized. The ex-slaves suspect that Zhansulu's henchmen might have captured and killed Saltanat for knowing too much. That, and because in their eyes, she had simply lost her value: Her hair was falling out in clumps, her legs were bruised and swollen from savage beatings (“at first we thought she was wearing purple tights”), and they were covered with bumps that oozed blood.

Saltanat’s 14-year old daughter Asel is illiterate. As a second-generation slave, Asel had absolutely no idea what it meant to be free, without a mistress. She was an example of a “true slave”—one of the congenitally docile and broken creatures that Zhansulu had intended to “breed” for herself, for her sons, and perhaps even for her grand- and great-grandchildren.

Russian and Kazakh police are doing everything possible to prevent a formal investigation. I shudder at the thought of our grandchildren ever being allowed to be slaves to the pro-Putin elite. Without money and connections, to get someone out of slavery is extremely difficult, but to get the government to prosecute a slaver—virtually impossible.

Dear journalists, this story needs your attention, so please help us spread the word. The ex-slaves are still in danger of being recaptured. Dear social artists, you too are welcome to join in. We could team up for exhibitions and other projects.

Author: Victoria Lomasko
Translation: Valentine Sergeyev

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Second report 
Third report 
Fourth report 
Fifth report 
Sixth report
Seventh report

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