In Russia, Estonian citizens who asked for political asylum were sent for psychiatric examination

Two Estonian citizens who crossed Lake Peipus on the ice in winter to ask for political asylum in Russia were sent for a psychiatric examination, Mediazona reports, citing a letter from one of them.

The examination was most likely carried out in a specialized psychiatric hospital in St. Petersburg with intensive observation. “I was recognized as somehow insane or mentally ill, which I generally disagree with,” writes Danil. According to him, he is ready to undergo a new test at another clinic.

Now he is in a two-week quarantine in Pskov pre-trial detention center No. 1 – in an unheated solitary cell with mice and without toilet paper, which he had to take from a cellmate.

Danil explains the decision to flee to Russia by the crisis and life circumstances, the reason for which, according to him, was the ban on the Russian language in Estonian schools, because of which he could find work and was left without a livelihood. “I have long heard that Russia had a resettlement program, that is, I heard that people were leaving to live in Russia,” he writes.

“I was told that for my violation it will be from six months to two years. It’s already the fourth month of my stay, I don’t want to sit for a very long time because of such an incident, since I just crossed the border, surrendered to the border guards and immediately told my purpose of crossing the border,” reports a resident of Estonia, who is still counting on political asylum in Russia.