Blogger Insa Lander tries to leave Russia

Georgian border guards do not let Insa Lander, a blogger from Kabardino-Balkaria, into the country, and she has been staying in the neutral zone without food and water for five days, reports Yegor Kuroptev, the director of the Free Russia Foundation* in Georgia. Lithuania is ready to accept Isa Lander if the issue on the Georgian border is resolved, the Lithuanian Ambassador to Georgia states.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that Oguz Insa Soltan-Khamidova, a blogger from Baksan, known under the pseudonym Insa Lander, found herself without a livelihood after the ban on using the Internet under house arrest. The remuneration of a lawyer and the costs for renting an apartment and buying food were covered by the blogger’s friends, while Isa Lander does not have access to her accounts.

According to blogger’s advocate Dmitry Zakhvatov, the case against the blogger was based on the correspondence on the “VKontakte” social media outlet in 2014 with a certain person whom Isa Lander was allegedly persuading to participate in a terrorist organization. Blogger’s friend Sonya Greze notes that the blogger’s correspondent was a man convicted on June 29, 2021 for not reporting his friend’s participation in the “Islamic State” (IS, a terrorist organization, banned in Russia by the court, – note of the “Caucasian Knot”).

Blogger Insa Lander escaped from house arrest and tried to cross the Russian-Georgian land border in Verkhny Lars border checkpoint on June 12, says Yegor Kuroptev, the director of the Free Russia Foundation* in Georgia. According to him, Georgian border guards do not let Insa Lander through for almost five days, although she faces a prison term in Russia. The blogger spends the night in the neutral zone between the two countries. Insa Lander does not have food and water, and people who pass the border give the blogger with water and food, the Free Russia Foundation* in Georgia reports Telegram channel.

*The Free Russia Foundation is recognized in Russia as an undesirable organization.