May 21, 2024

One Flower For Every Month In Prison


One Flower For Every Month In Prison
Maykop, the capital of Adygea. NJCHCI, Wikimedia Commons.

In December 2023, 18-year-old Kevin Lik became the youngest person convicted of espionage in Russia. The Russian-German citizen, who was 16 at the time, was accused of taking pictures of military bases and sending them via email to a foreign power. Sota visited his mother's house in Maykop, Adygea Republic, to see where the teenager lived.

Victoria had not entered Kevin's room until Sota visited her. A calendar with colorful illustrations on the closet was still open on the page for December 2022. On his bed were ecology certificates, frog drawings, documents of enrollment in university chemistry and biology courses. The room is filled with encyclopedias. Kevin kept a herbarium with local samples that he packed into a suitcase.

The bed is covered in diplomas from multiple language contests in English and German. He won an All-Russian German Language Olympiad in Moscow, for which he received an award of R200,000 from Murat Kumpliov, head of the Adygea Republic. A newspaper on the bed features a picture of him shaking hands with the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government, Dmitry Chenyshenko.

Lik was born in Montabaur, Germany, in 2005. His parents separated when he was a year old. His mother, Victoria, a caretaker of elderly people, yearned to return to Russia. In 2017, the Lik family moved to Maykop, the capital of Adygea and a bankrupt industrial town of 140,000 with a military base. Now, Victoria regrets that decision.

In the summer of 2022, Victoria wanted to return to Germany with her fiancee. Victoria applied for a short-term visa and Kevin went to the German Embassy in Moscow to receive a stamp confirming that he lived in Adygea. Kevin and his mother got plane tickets and began packing.

In February 2023, Victoria was summoned to the military enlistment office. She needed to obtain a seal saying that Kevin had been removed from the military register due to his permanent residence in Germany, which had been refused the day before. She was detained at the facility for multiple hours and then held in administrative detention for allegedly using obscene language. She was taken for a medical examination and spent 10 days in detention. 

On February 23, 2023, the Lik family was about to fly from Sochi to Frankfurt Am Main via Istanbul. Victoria told Sota that, on that day "We had just left the hotel [and] walked about 20 steps. A gray minibus stops. People surround us, start filming, and say that Kevin is accused of treason and we are detained."

A state-appointed lawyer insisted that Kevin plead guilty. After long hours of interrogation, the exhausted 16-year-old succumbed to the pressure. Victoria cannot discuss her son's trials, since she signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Victoria was "far from politics." But, after her son's imprisonment, she began meeting other imprisoned teenagers' parents. Victoria only eats when friends come over. Kevin, who is only allowed to receive visits twice a month, is frustrated that he could not finish tenth grade. The teenager has been deprived of his calculator and textbooks in prison. He has been beaten up by his cellmate.

There are flowers on the window sill. Kevin asked his mother to add one every month he is in custody. This month there are 15.

 

You Might Also Like

Student Sentenced for Spying
  • January 03, 2024

Student Sentenced for Spying

For the first time, Russia has sentenced a student for spying. The 18-year-old was a high-achieving student.
Espionage on Ice
  • July 03, 2023

Espionage on Ice

Poland has arrested a Russian hockey player for espionage.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955