Aleksandra Garmazhapova

Aleksandra Garmazhapova is the founder and president of the Free Buryatia Foundation, the first ethnic anti-war initiative that has inspired dozens of ethnic groups from Russia to create anti-war initiatives.

Aleksandra is a veteran investigative journalist and keen political researcher who has been advocating for human rights and democracy in Russia for over 15 years. She is the architect of the international “Denazification of Russia” campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the experiences of ethnic minorities in Russia who face racism and discrimination.

Garmazhapova is the first journalist who wrote about Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “troll factory”. She is the winner of several prestigious journalistic awards, including “Zolotoe Pero”. She covered the North Caucasus and was nominated for the Caucasian Journalists Award.

Garmazhapova was declared a foreign agent by the Russian Ministry of Justice. On November 10, 2023, a Russian court sentenced her in absentia to 7 years in prison for spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, namely for condemning Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine. The Free Buryatia Foundation has been declared an undesirable organization by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.