In just two months, a fundraising campaign to support Zarema Musaeva—the wife of former federal judge Saidi Yangulbaev and mother of opposition activists, currently serving a sentence in a penal settlement—has successfully met its goal. By July 16, over 250,000 rubles had been raised on the "Zaodno" platform; this amount is sufficient to cover approximately five months of care packages containing medication, food, and hygiene products.
For Musaeva, the money is a matter of survival, not comfort. She requires daily insulin, and failure to adhere to the necessary diet puts her at risk of vision deterioration and damage to her blood vessels and nervous system. After receiving a previous delivery of medication, Musaeva wrote: "Thank you for the support; you are saving me."
Security forces from Chechnya forcibly removed Musaeva from her apartment in Nizhny Novgorod in January 2022. In July 2023, a court in Chechnya sentenced her to five years in prison on charges of fraud and using violence against a police officer. According to the prosecution, she scratched a police officer's face while being transported. In March 2024, the Fifth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction reduced her sentence to four years and nine months.
Musaeva was due to be released in March 2025, but shortly before her scheduled release, a new criminal case was opened against her. A court sentenced her to four years in a penal settlement on charges of disrupting the operations of a correctional facility. According to case files, while being transported to a hospital, she allegedly attacked an escort officer, scratching his neck and damaging his shoulder board. At the same time, the testimonies of the FSIN officers were inconsistent: one claimed that Musayeva had struck and scratched him, while the other did not witness this.
Musayeva herself and her supporters view both criminal cases as retaliation for the activities of her sons, who are critics of the Chechen authorities. Human rights activists have recognized her as a political prisoner.
In late 2025, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, effectively confirmed the political nature of the case during a live Q&A session, stating that Musayeva had been "taken" to Chechnya because her family members were "active on social media."
In June, Musayeva’s daughter, Aliya Yangulbayeva, published an open letter addressed to Aishat Kadyrova, the eldest daughter of the Chechen leader. She urged Aishat to show compassion and use her influence to secure her mother's release, reminding her that she had frequently spoken about mercy, family values, and respect for women. Aliya emphasized that she was appealing to her not as an official, but as a daughter and a mother capable of understanding another family's pain. However, Aishat Kadyrova never publicly responded to the appeal.
