Olga and Nikita Belov, a mother and son from the Moscow region, left Russia after the start of mobilization in 2022. After three years of litigation, the Finnish authorities refused to grant them political asylum, placed them in custody and were preparing to deport them to Russia, despite the risk of criminal prosecution. However, the decision was revised at the last moment.
As ASTRA found out, on the evening of April 27, the Belovs will probably be released from the detention center. After that, the court will re-examine their appeal against the denial of asylum.
On April 24, Olga and Nikita came to the police on a call, where they were informed about being placed in custody before deportation. They were then transported first to Turku, and then to a temporary detention center in Helsinki.
In Finland, the Belovs were engaged in volunteer assistance to Ukraine: they collaborated with the FinEst humanitarian center, helped Ukrainian refugees and the military. They discussed, in particular, medicines, sleeping bags, blankets and materials for trench candles.
The Finnish authorities considered this activity to be “small-scale”. The court decision stated that there was no reason to believe that the family was in any danger in Russia because of its political views or social activities in Finland. Also, according to the court, there are no grounds for granting individual humanitarian visas.
Family friends and human rights activists disagree with this. Svetlana Utkina, a former municipal deputy from St. Petersburg and head of the NGO Initiative FoReDi, who is familiar with the Belovs, told ASTRA that Finnish officials underestimate the risks for opposition-minded Russians when returning to their homeland.
“The Finnish migration Service and the courts constantly say that they are experts on Russia. But they don’t know anything about Russia. Even when they refuse asylum to homosexuals [from Russia], they write: “In case of violation of your rights, you can contact your police.” If they have such an idea about LGBT+ people, what kind of idea do they have about everyone else? These are the “experts on Russia” who are sitting there.”
Ukrainians living in Finland and a number of public figures, including producer Alexander Rodnyansky, came out in support of the Belovs.
Before leaving Russia, Nikita worked at a Moscow research institute. After the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the company began to work with military orders, which the young man refused to fulfill.
