Home front fighters. How activists oppose violence against women in modern Russia

An important factor in the fight against domestic violence is the availability of a shelter system where a woman could hide from the aggressor.

The number of crisis centers currently available in Russia, according to various estimates , does not exceed one hundred and fifty. This is an order of magnitude less than what is required for a country with a population of 140 million, according to the recommendations of the Council of Europe.

Shelters are distributed unevenly throughout the country. Somewhere in an entire large region there are only one or two shelters. For example, in the entire territory of Yakutia there is only a shelter for women with children of the Children of Sakha-Asia Foundation. Previously, victims of domestic violence were also helped by the “You are not alone, Yakutia is with you” community. But on April 1, 2026, it announced its closure due to lack of resources. According to the interactive map of the Aistenok project , only one crisis center for women, designed for 15 beds , exists in Komi and only two in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug (KhMAO-Yugra).

In addition, public and private centers have their own specifics. Private ones suffer more from a critical lack of funding. And the government may employ very conservative psychologists who will convince a woman to reconcile with her husband and save the family even in a situation of an extremely disgusting form of abusive relationship. In shelters affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church, the psychologist may even be replaced by a priest. In addition, government centers may not accept people with HIV, but in Moscow they only accept people with permanent registration and registration.

The director of one of the Russian shelters, Inga <name changed for security reasons - The Insider> has been working in this area since the early 2010s. She notes that, contrary to stereotypes, women who seek help most often do not come from marginalized backgrounds. These are doctors, nurses, lawyers, designers, and also refugees or migrants who, due to lack of registration, will not be accommodated in a state crisis center. But women from the lower strata of society more often endure violence to the last, trying to save the family.

“We work with a fairly wide range of victims: these can be women who have suffered from violence in marriage, from trafficking, and who find themselves in life-threatening situations,” she lists. — After 2022, funding decreased greatly, because international organizations left our market and, in principle, it became dangerous to work with them. Competition for Russian grants has increased incredibly. People work and even overwork, most often for a very small salary or even out of sheer enthusiasm. We are trying to survive. What else should I do?

Currently, Inga’s organization processes from 45 to 60 specialized requests per month. Not all of them will result in the granting of asylum - sometimes it is a matter of redirection or just consultation.

Since 2022, the number of monthly requests has increased by approximately 30–40%. At the same time, activists, of course, did not move in more people, since the number of places in the shelter remained the same. “Unable to fit” people are redirected to state shelters, with which activists are in constant contact. In the last 8 months, however, they also began to answer that they had run out of free places, although such a problem had never arisen before.