«Sometimes, when you look at the representatives of the European Commission who write the sanctions text, you want to ask: what exactly were you trying to achieve?»
The founder of the «Iskra» association, Gera Ugryumova, has been fighting discrimination against Russians in exile since September 2023. Before that, in order to obtain political asylum in Italy, she spent a year and a half processing documents for residence in the European Union — and for some time lived in shelters without an identity document or a bank account. Now the 24-year-old human rights activist, together with her team, helps compatriots in similar situations, and «Iskra» works only thanks to donations from private individuals. Right now, Gera is pushing European authorities to amend a regulation that prevents thousands of Russians in exile from opening bank accounts in European banks.
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