"Produkty" Grocery Store. Modern-Day Slavery in Russia. Ninth Report.
On Tuesday, December 11, Moscow’s Independent Press Center held a press conference entitled “The Moscow Slaves: Updates and Victims.” Among the attendees were Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the Civic Assistance Committee; Anastasia Denisova, activist and member of the Civic Assistance Committee; Mikhail Fedotov, Russia’s presidential advisor on human rights; ex-slaves Bakiya Kasimova and Leila Ashirova; and their lawyer Emil Taubulatov.

During the conference, Svetlana Gannushkina repeatedly stressed the fact that the sordid business run by the Istambekov family was just one isolated example of a sprawling, ruthlessly efficient system in action. She said, “There is a whole system of human trafficking in place in our country. If we were to dig deeper, there’s no knowing what we might find.”




"We organize conferences like this because we want to remind people that things are really at a standstill."

The digging is being done by activists, journalists, and members of the Civic Assistance Committee. Officials keep stonewalling all attempts at an investigation, brushing them aside as “unlawful and unsubstantiated.” For now, Zhansulu Istambekova and her husband Saken Muzdibaev are as free as it gets. Gannushkina also told reporters that the members of the Committee were cautioned by officials not to be “overly inquisitive.” Svetlana reminded the attendees that Sholpan Istambekova, Zhansulu’s elder sister, who had been imprisoned on charges of human trafficking and torture, was granted a full pardon by President Vladimir Putin. “Her pardon was out of the ordinary. This suggests the involvement of certain interested parties,” Svetlana commented.

Gannushkina is certain that the Golyanovo district police station, whose officers turned runaway slaves back to their owners, is only one of the many interconnected elements of a complex hierarchal structure. The influence of this structure likely extends to the medical institutions where the ex-slaves gave birth under assumed names and forged documents.

As an example of excellent teamwork on the part of slavers and police, Svetlana told us the story of a Civic Committee lawyer who rescued an Uzbek slave from a carwash in the city of Blagoveshchensk. With slave in car, the lawyer really had to step on the gas as the slavers gave chase, firing guns at the fleeing car—the sort of thing you normally see in the movies. Later, law enforcers tried to pin a kidnapping on her.

Why is Russia so good for modern slavery? Gannushkina said that she had long foreseen everything: Russia has visa-free agreements with all five post-Soviet Central Asian states, inviting a steady influx of foreign workers. And although these foreigners are willing to work long hours doing hard physical labor for meager wages, the new Russian laws make it harder to hire them legally; a far cheaper and easier option for employers would be to simply seize their passports and turn them into slaves, and the police would be happy to cooperate for a bribe.

Mikhail Fedotov, one of the few supportive political figures, points out that the concept of modern-day slavery simply eludes people who honestly expect to see “slaves with shackles on their feet.” Svetlana Gannushkina added, in a dig at Vladimir Putin’s famous 2008 statement, “There is just one slave in Russia. The galley slave.”

An interesting moment came when the attendees were given the opportunity to Skype with the former slaves of Zhanar Istambekova, a woman as unscrupulous as her sisters Sholpan and Zhansulu. The women escaped in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Back in Kazakhstan, some of them filed complaints against their mistress, but found their native city of Shymkent firmly in the grasp of the Istambekov family. The ex-slaves are now under the protection of Kazakh human rights organization Sana Sezim.

The stories of Zhanar’s ex-slaves recall those of Leila, Bakiya, and Zarina: Their masters forced them to do unpaid labor, fed them with rotten food, hurt them, raped them, and took their children. While Leila and Bakiya were mostly idle during the conference, they did exchange whispers in their native tongue with the other ex-slaves on the Skype call.

Anastatia Denisova, responsible for overseeing the Commitee’s efforts aimed at helping the ex-slaves, told reporters that Leila’s and Bakiya’s sons had each undergone a medical examination. Bakhyt’s examination revealed multiple scars, which he explained had come from the punishment for not massaging his mistress’s feet deeply enough. Baurzhan’s condition sent shivers of horror down the doctor’s spine. Because of violence and malnutrition, the boy was left with improperly-healed broken feet and a malformed rib cage. And these are for life.





Now, Zhansulu Istambekova is harassing the victims’ families, vacillating between threats of retribution and promises of benefit. At the same time, in her interviews with Channel 31, she is feverishly accusing Leila, Bakiya and her other former slaves of extortion and blackmail.

When the conference came to an end, I spend some time talking with Leila and Bakiya. Since most of the ex-slaves have left the capital and returned to their homes, these two are the only ones remaining in Moscow. I asked them if they enjoyed walking in the city. “We sure do,” Leila replied, “we sure have a great time walking to the hospital.”

Bakiya has donned a lovely red hat and an unseasonably light coat. She seems to take great delight in posing in front of the mirror. The reflection makes her smile. Bakiya hopes that in a time not far distant, justice will prevail.

Author: Victoria Lomasko
Translation: Valentine Sergeyev

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Eighth report
Ninth report

All nine reports in Russian