Translated material
"I'm scared, but I'm not afraid." Lawyer Maria Bonzler was accused of treason
Kaliningrad lawyer 65-year-old Maria Bontzler faces up to 20 years in prison. In the final indictment, the investigation tightened the article, replacing “confidential cooperation with a foreign state” (275.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) with treason (275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Bonzler is one of the few lawyers in the Kaliningrad region who was not afraid to take on clearly political cases. In particular, she defended Kaliningrad resident Igor Baryshnikov in the case of anti-war posts. Human rights activists are confident that Bontzler’s trial is now being made demonstrably cruel in order to discourage other lawyers from being willing to defend those accused on political charges.
According to the human rights project First Department, in the first nine months of 2025 alone, at least 50 criminal cases have been filed against lawyers in Russia - and these are only those cases that could be confirmed from open sources.
"It's just revenge"
Bonzler was arrested on May 28, 2025.
“During her arrest, she was told that she would be accused of both treason and confidential cooperation with a foreign state - allegedly, correspondence with a certain representative of Ukraine named Dyachuk was found in her personal telegram. But at first they charged only cooperation,” says lawyer Vladimir, who is well acquainted with the progress of her criminal case (we do not disclose the real names of the interlocutors due to the law on undesirable organizations. - SR) .
Now, after nine months of investigation, Bonzler has finally been charged with treason. There are six volumes of her criminal case, each containing 250 pages.
“The fact that the charges were eventually tightened was predictable,” says Kaliningrad activist Sergei . “The charge of so-called confidential cooperation with a foreign state can very easily be reclassified as high treason.” If an FSB officer believes that the accused communicated with a representative of the SBU, then that’s what happened. Just call any Ukrainian number and you can accuse the person of communicating with an SBU officer and passing on state secrets. As we know, there are no reasons not to believe an FSB officer in today’s Russia.
However, Maria Bonzler was immediately offered to “ease” her fate. To do this, she had to testify against her colleague. She refused.
From a letter from Maria Bonzler from the pre-trial detention center:
“Literally today I read the biography of such a state traitor who lived in the 16th century, Metropolitan Philip, a holy martyr who tried to protect the poor Russian people from the bloody Tsar (so beloved by today’s government) John IV, and his guardsmen, who, on his orders, flooded the country with blood. I, of course, do not claim the holiness of the Great Metropolitan Philip. But the phrase state traitor reminds me of something. Ah yes, so they are trying to make me, human rights lawyer Maria Bonzler, a “traitor to the state”! And this “witch hunt” affected me, a 65-year-old sick woman who lost her son, an inconsolable widow, and as soon as they raised their hand, you say? For me, even 10 years in prison is actually a death sentence. And here they persistently offer me an alternative - instead of 12-15 years in prison, only 2-2.5 years. I just need to conclude a pre-trial agreement and give these new “government guards” another person - my colleague, also a lawyer, the father of three children. For some reason, they need him more than me. And most importantly, they are sure that I will ultimately agree to this deal, saving my own skin. I wonder what universities these unfortunate children studied in, for whom everything is upside down: truth is a lie; betrayal is love; Homeland. They obviously haven’t read “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri. And they don’t know who is kept in the ninth, most terrible, circle of Hell. And there are the traitors of those who trusted them. I will go through all the torments that fate is preparing for me. One bright angel bequeathed to us at the end of his life: “I am not afraid, and you are not afraid.” And in his memory, I also repeat that cowardice is the main vice.
Due to the “state secret” stamp, Bonzler’s lawyers are not shown some of the documents on which the evidence base for the prosecution is based. The suppression processes take place behind closed doors at the insistence of the prosecutor's office.
“Issues that are subject to consideration by the court may concern information about the operational search activities carried out, as well as information that, according to the investigation, was transferred to foreign intelligence services. This data refers to information constituting a state secret. In this regard, holding a meeting in open court may lead to the disclosure of secrets protected by law,” the prosecutor argued during one of the meetings (the recording is at the disposal of Sever.Realii) .
“I believe that all this is being done to hide the fact that they have no evidence. They are now actively trying to find something - but they have nothing,” Maria Bonzler objected at the trial.
From a letter from Maria Bonzler:
“I won’t talk about the courts any more, here, I think, everything is clear. Recently there was a court hearing, which shocked even me with great experience. On September 4, 2025, a hearing was scheduled for the appeal of my lawyer Sidorov against the decision to extend my detention for up to four months. It was accepted without my participation, since I was taken by ambulance to the hospital. My lawyer filed a complaint on the day of my discharge from the hospital. They delayed the consideration for a long time, but then on September 2 The court hearing was scheduled for September 4. My defenders brought a notice that they would not be able to attend for good reasons and asked to postpone the trial, but the judge was concerned in advance and appointed me a lawyer, although I wrote a statement to the Bar Association, in which I asked: since I have two defenders by agreement, they would not provide me with a lawyer, but I refused him twice. my defenders by agreement, in the presence of a backup lawyer. Then I told the judge that I didn’t want to participate in this farce and disconnected from the videoconference, then the trial continued without me. The judge, the prosecutor, and the backup defense attorney “figured it out for three.” And really, why are there attorneys by agreement, all sorts of defendants, if you can take any third-party lawyer (who will get acquainted with the case within five minutes) and the case is done. This whole imitation of justice is just to take the defendant into the corridor and shoot him in the back of the head. This has already happened more than once in the history of this country...”
Before the initiation of the criminal case, Bonzler already had two administrative fines under the article on “discrediting” the Russian army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code), drawn up in 2022. Reason: she defended participants in anti-war protests in court and called what was happening in Ukraine a war. The protocols were drawn up after the judges sent the materials of the hearings to the police. According to activists, after two administrations, Bonzler did not rule out the appearance of a criminal case.
“In my opinion, this is just revenge from law enforcement agencies,” says Vyacheslav , a Kaliningrad journalist observing Bonzler’s trial. – Since Maria Vladimirovna’s arrest, several trials have already taken place. Appeals, complaints about conditions of detention, processes to extend periods of detention were considered. And in all these processes, the prosecutor’s office and the court behave with prejudice, as if she had already been found guilty. The prosecutor's office never took her side, even in cases related to conditions of detention or the provision of medical care. She is treated as if she is already convicted.
Almost immediately after being placed in pre-trial detention center No. 1, Bontzler began to challenge the actions of the detention center administration. She and her defenders are filing lawsuits not only to cancel the preventive measure, but also against illegal penalties and failure to provide medical care.
Thus, on December 17, 2025, in the Leningrad District Court, Bontzler demanded that the two disciplinary reprimands that she received in the pre-trial detention center in the summer be declared illegal. The first is for the fact that on June 20 she gave her lawyer copies of statements related to the appeal of the preventive measure. According to the defense, the detention center staff interrupted the meeting and simply took away the documents. The lawyer told the court: “We were reading the documents, and at that moment the employees came in. I asked not to interrupt the meeting, but they simply took the papers and said: “We will not provide you with anything.”
The pre-trial detention center explained its actions by saying that documents must be sent to the court through the administration of the institution. The defense insisted that this was about work correspondence between the lawyer and the client, which was not subject to control. The lawyer asked the court to request surveillance camera recordings that could confirm the circumstances of the seizure of documents, but representatives of the pre-trial detention center stated that the recordings had already been deleted: according to them, video recordings are stored for no more than 30 days.
Bontzler received her second reprimand for not keeping her hands behind her back while moving around the detention center. She explained in court that she suffers from Meniere's syndrome, a condition of the inner ear that causes loss of balance and dizziness: "If I hold my hands behind my back, I might just fall." According to her, this disease was diagnosed in her during hospitalization in May - after which she was detained.
At the same time, the defense filed claims related to medical care in the detention center. At one of the meetings in January, notes from Bontzler’s medical record were discussed: in the pre-trial detention center, her blood pressure was repeatedly recorded at 200/120. The lawyer pointed out that weeks sometimes passed between doctors' examinations. The representative of the medical unit replied that “it is not stated anywhere that there should be a daily examination,” and argued that there were no grounds for urgent hospitalization. The court rejected the claim.
"I'll remember your names"
On February 5, 2026, the defense filed an application to establish Bontzler as disabled, but this requires a medical commission, which has not yet been carried out.
– There were cases when she felt ill right during court hearings . This happened more than once. At the end of July last year, before her 65th birthday, Maria Vladimirovna was taken by ambulance to the hospital. She was treated there for an ulcer and hypertension. But due to her main illnesses, she cannot be in a pre-trial detention center. The system sees all this, knows all this, but it is clear that if the case is being handled by the FSB, then the person can be kept in a pre-trial detention center regardless of their state of health,” says Kaliningrad activist Sergei.
Bontzler is accused under one of the most serious articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and besides, she is a lawyer and belongs to the “special contingent”, so they keep her in solitary confinement.
- In general, she is a very unique person, everyone is good, all her “sons” and “children.” That’s why she never considered herself a good lawyer, since a good lawyer, according to her, should have a “bastard” character, he should complain and make trouble for any reason. On the contrary, she tried to maintain a good relationship. “I’m an ordinary regional lawyer, but they make me a world star!” she says now. She has already received more than two thousand letters, 10 letters a day from all over the world - from Australia, South America, the USA, mostly from Russian speakers, of course. And she answers everyone and thanks everyone for their attention, that’s the kind of person she is,” says Bonzler’s close friend Irina .
From a letter from Maria Bonzler:
“Once I did a very interesting experiment. For a whole week in our (Lord, I’m already writing in ours, what can I do, I’m the kind of person where I am, there is my home, that is, my cell is half prison, half monastic. This also happens) pre-trial detention center. So, for a whole week in our pre-trial detention center, the special forces of the Federal Penitentiary Service were reinforced. When I went out for a walk, and a walk is the only event where we are not taken, but we go down to walking yard and returning “home” ourselves, they are just waiting for us at the destination and at the point of return. This week, on every floor, on almost every corner, there were special forces, in full ammunition, with weapons, in masks, in helmets. So I conducted an interesting experiment - on a walk, going down the stairs from the fifth floor, I friendly greeted each special forces, with a sort of column in which there was practically nothing. human. And I returned from the walk the same way. I approached each special forces soldier and asked if I greeted him. All the guys looked like each other, like clones, I really couldn’t know who I greeted and who I didn’t. It turned out that I greeted everyone, and received a lot of boyish looks sparkling with joy. And it became absolutely clear to me that these were not idols, but ordinary cheerful and cute ones. guys who know how to joke and laugh. And in general, a pre-trial detention center is like a border, in the sense that “strangers don’t come here.” So I always greet everyone I meet here. And everyone here knows me and also says hello. good jokes, and I know an incredible number of them, for any life occasion). to give me your writing pen when mine ran out of paste, or to bring me a new one just because, out of a desire to help. One guard once said that he earns himself good karma by treating me kindly... My dear boys, I see how difficult it is for you in such a job. I will remember your names, I will write down your faces in my memory, I will forever take with me your kindness and sympathy, which I so needed in a difficult period of my life...”
Maria Bontzler understood all the risks of her work as a lawyer, but she consciously chose to stay in Russia - she herself spoke about this in an interview with Sever.Realii back in 2022.
“Judging by the messages that come from her through her friends and relatives, her position has not changed,” says Sergei. “She doesn’t say that she regrets her choice.” On the contrary, she conveyed that Igor Baryshnikov’s position helps her to hold on. He behaved very firmly during the trial, saying that he had the right to his actions and that it was not he who was breaking the law, but those who were persecuting him. He made no attempt to maneuver or retreat. And Maria Vladimirovna said that this position helps her withstand pressure.
The case of Kaliningrad activist Igor Baryshnikov, sentenced in 2023 to 7.5 years in prison under the article on “fake news” about the army for anti-war publications, received an international resonance due to the active position of his defense. The UN Human Rights Committee drew attention to the situation: in August 2024, it demanded that the Russian authorities provide Baryshnikov with adequate medical care while his complaint was being considered, pointing out the threat to his health and life. As a result, Baryshnikov finally underwent surgery, and now, according to activists who keep in touch with him, he feels better, although he continues to treat cystitis.
Harassment of lawyers
The case of Maria Bonzler is perceived in the human rights community as indicative.
– Indicative in the sense that lawyers are afraid to deal with political cases about so-called terrorism, high treason, and so on. So that lawyers simply do not interfere in this area and that only appointed lawyers deal with such cases,” says Kaliningrad activist Sergei. – The Kaliningrad region is generally a rather special region. This is an enclave, a region in plain sight. Political activity is always closely monitored here. The region is located on the edge of the country and at the same time surrounded by EU countries, so there is always increased attention to it. The authorities are trying to keep the situation under special control.
At the same time as Maria Bontzler, security forces in the region are also pursuing her colleagues. On the day of her arrest, May 28, 2025, searches were carried out at the premises of Kaliningrad lawyers Roman Morozov and Ekaterina Selezarova. Electronic media and documents were confiscated from Morozov. In March 2025, Kaliningrad lawyer Vladislav Zavgorodniy was detained. According to investigators, in October 2024 he published a comment on a social network containing justification or calls for terrorist activities (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), “expressed regret that a Ukrainian drone did not hit representatives of the country’s top leadership during one of the strikes on Russian territory,” the indictment said. Zavgorodny was fined 400 thousand rubles.
Another lawyer from Kaliningrad, Vladimir Sorokin, is charged with transferring 500 rubles to the FBK account in November 2021. At that time, the organization was already recognized as “extremist” in Russia. For 66-year-old Sorokin, the court chose a preventive measure of “prohibition of certain actions”; he is prohibited from using the telephone and the Internet. According to Sorokin and his colleagues, this was done to impede his advocacy.
The attack on lawyers disliked by the authorities is taking place throughout Russia.
According to the human rights project First Department, in the first nine months of 2025 alone, at least 50 criminal cases have been filed against lawyers in Russia - and these are only those cases that could be confirmed from open sources. Both well-known defenders of political prisoners and regional lawyers engaged in ordinary criminal practice are under criminal prosecution. For the first half of 2025, the Investigative Committee reported that 98 lawyers were brought to criminal liability for “corruption” alone – mainly under Articles 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Fraud”), 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Giving a bribe”) and 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Mediation in bribery”). But not every case against a lawyer becomes known immediately after its initiation, the First Department emphasizes.
In December 2025, after a series of searches in the case of the activities of an “undesirable organization” (Part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), Ural human rights activists Alexey Sokolov, Roman Kachanov and Larisa Zakharova were detained in Yekaterinburg. On December 18, 2025, the Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg sent Sokolov to a pre-trial detention center, and soon the investigation toughened the charges by adding Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“high treason”). His colleagues – lawyer Kachanov and human rights activist Zakharova – are involved in the case of an “undesirable organization”. Both were arrested until February 15, 2026.
Later, information appeared that Roman Kachanov pleaded guilty in the case of collaboration with an undesirable organization and was transferred to house arrest. Larisa Zakharova continues to insist on her innocence.
In February, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court extended Alexey Sokolov’s arrest once again. WITH On December 30, 2025, a human rights activist is regularly placed in a punishment cell for formal reasons - for example, for talking through the door with an orderly or for not buttoning a button. Sokolov claims tortured conditions of detention in the pre-trial detention center - he has already sent more than 30 complaints against the administration. The investigation into his criminal case continues, and most of the materials are classified.
One of the latest cases of persecution is the detention and arrest of Chelyabinsk lawyer Oleg Stepanov. He defended those accused on political charges; after the start of the war, he left the country and lived for some time in Serbia. At the end of January 2026, he returned to Russia for family reasons and was detained on January 31 at Sochi airport. First, an administrative report was drawn up against him regarding “disobedience to the police” (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code) and he was placed under administrative arrest. And on February 13, the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi arrested Stepanov as part of a criminal case for participation in the activities of a terrorist organization (Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Criminal Code). It is still unknown which organization we are talking about.
At the same time, the FSB is trying to deprive those who have left Russia of their lawyer status. The security forces sent a list of such lawyers to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, reports the human rights project “First Department”. The letter is dated August 29, 2025 and was sent “as a matter of communication” to verify the grounds for termination of lawyer status. The reason for this is the amendments to the law on the legal profession, which allow the deprivation of the status of lawyers who have been outside Russia for more than six months without good reason. The list, according to human rights activists, includes at least eight lawyers, including international law specialist Karinna Moskalenko, lawyer Vadim Prokhorov, who represented the interests of the family of Boris Nemtsov, lawyer Nikolai Polozov, as well as lawyer for the First Department project Evgeny Smirnov. Human rights activists believe that such a mechanism can be used to put pressure on lawyers who left the country after the start of the war.
"I'm scared, but I'm not afraid." Lawyer Maria Bonzler was accused of treason