Denied a final goodbye. Imprisoned wife of Russian political prisoner Alexander Dotsenko barred from attending his funeral

A crowd of about 30 friends and supporters gathered at a small church in Taytsy village in the Leningrad region, just outside St Petersburg, to mourn the loss of Dotsenko. His wife, 46-year-old artist Anastasia Dyudyaeva, was absent. Like her late husband, Dyudyaeva is a political prisoner serving time on the exact same charges. The couple lived in Taytsy before their incarceration. 

At least one person fainted during the service, Bumaga reported. 

Dotsenko, a Ukraine-born jeweller and former children’s athletics coach, suffered a massive heart attack in custody on February 12 2026. He was transferred to a hospital where he remained in critical condition. According to his support group, he briefly began to regain consciousness on February 17, but immediately suffered severe complications, including acute cardiac arrhythmias. He was placed back into a medically induced coma, but his condition rapidly deteriorated. He passed away on the afternoon of February 19.

The couple’s ordeal began in 2023, when their home was raided, and they were sent to a pre-trial detention. They were charged with “justifying terrorism” based on allegedly slipping paper napkins bearing the anti-Putin slogan “Putinyaku na gilyaku” (a Ukrainian rhyming chant roughly translating to “Hang Putin from a branch”) into consumer goods at a branch of Lenta, a major supermarket chain, in St Petersburg.

Both Dotsenko and Dyudyaeva denied being the authors of the leaflets or placing them in the store. The defence pointed out that prosecutors failed to provide any evidence, such as security footage, proving they spreaded leaflets among the groceries. During the trial, even the prosecution’s own handwriting expert expressed doubt that the couple had written the notes.

Despite the lack of concrete evidence, a military court convicted them in July 2024. Dotsenko was sentenced to three years in a “colony-settlement”, a low-security prison camp. Dyudyaeva was handed a three-and-a-half-year sentence in a similar facility.

In May 2023, the couple hosted an underground anti-war art exhibition in their Taytsy home. The gathering was raided by police, forcing attendees to flee through windows to escape arrest; still, 14 were arrested.