Longtime Russian human rights activist and dissident Nina Litvinova committed suicide. Before her death, she wrote a letter in which blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death. The website of Rádio Sloboda (RFE/RL) reported about it, writes TASR. The suicide of 80-year-old Litvinova was also reported on May 13 Russian state media, while not mentioning her involvement in the field of human rights protection.
The next day, Litvinova’s cousin, journalist Marija Slonimová, published an excerpt from the farewell letter on social networks. In it, the dissident criticized the repression against opponents of the regime in Russia and the war against Ukraine. She wrote that life happened for her “unbearable” because she was unable to help the people who are suffering and dying in Ukraine and Russia.
In the letter, she mentioned the names of convicted Russian theater actresses Yevgenia Berkovičová and Svetlana Petrijčuková and other persons considered to be political prisoners. “I tried to help them, but I don’t have the strength anymore and I feel powerless day and night. I’m ashamed, but I’ve given up. Please forgive me.” wrote Litvinová.
The Russian human rights organization Memorial said that Litvinova has been helping political prisoners since the 1960s. Among these prisoners was her brother, the dissident Pavel Litvinov, who in August 1968 took part in a protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops on Red Square in Moscow. Pavel and Nina Litvinov were grandsons diplomat Maxim Litvinov, who was the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs during the Joseph Stalin era.
