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Yana Savchuck was a 36 year 
old Russian hairdresser,

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who lived in Oryol, a city 400 kilometers 
away from Moscow,

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she dated a man 
who didn't love her

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to the point of beating and killing her.

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But Yana could have been saved.

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When she called the police in November

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saying that her husband
was going to kill her,

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the police officer cast off her cries 
for help as ridiculous.

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"Don’t worry, if he kills you, we will
come to examine the body" he said,

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as recorded on the victim's phone.

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Within forty minutes later, Yana was dead,

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beaten by the same man the 
police refused to arrest.

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Personally, I've always been stunned
in front of the episodes

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of domestic violence and femicides 
in my country.

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I remember that when I was in the 
last year of primary school,

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since I was living in a big city,

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just a few of my friends went home 
completely alone.

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One of them in particular,

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said that her mum didn’t allow her to do 
it because she had heard about a girl

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who was just two years older than us,

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that had been killed while she was coming 
home from a sport center.

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I also remember Fortunata, a 90 year 
old women I knew,

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who lived in a small village in 
the South of Italy

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who thought that it was normal 
that her husband kept beating her

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after 70 years of marriage and 
wouldn't leave him,

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even though her children wanted 
her to do so.

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After I heard about those stories,

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I first realized that the reality wasn’t 
exactly as I expected it to be

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or the reality my parents or 
my teachers believed in:

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gender equality is not always real,

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and the victims of violence do not always 
receive help or protection.

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A couple years ago,

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while skimming over the headlines 
of the local newspapers

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I found out that this issue involves 
every country around the world.

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In the USA every day nearly three women 
are killed by their intimate partner,

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according to the violence policy center;

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while in places like Pakistan this 
phenomenon is endemic.

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These articles made me realize that 
even the law can be unfair

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in those terrible situations.

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I was startled to discover that domestic 
violence in Russia

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killed at least 14,000 women in 2009,

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according to the Duma’s Committee 
on social defense.

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The Official Russian Interior Ministry 
statistics point to

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4 million reported cases of abuse 
in 2015.

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Those statistics do not include the likely
high number of unreported cases,

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because 90% of the survivors 
do not report

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the violence incidents to the police.

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Now, with these high rates,

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you would expect that today there would 
be strict laws punishing the abuse. Right?

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Well, that’s not what’s happening.

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In 2016, those convicted of abuse charges 
were given up to two years in prison.

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But in 2017, a new law was proposed,

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and passed with a large consensus 
of the Parliament,

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that changed the punishment into a 
fine for the first offense;

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then heightened to a criminal charge 
for the second offense.

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But only with an interval of at 
most one a year.

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In other words,

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today Russian men are allowed to 
beat their wife once a year

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without being considered criminals.

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And on the top of that,

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the Orthodox Church and the conservative 
groups agreed justifying this law

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as a measure to preserve traditional 
family values.

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When I first heard about this law, 
I had two choices:

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turn the page as if nothing had happened 
or care about this issue,

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recognizing that even if I live 
in another country

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and in another society and 
I have never met those women,

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I share their stories and their fear,

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because as the statistics say, 
this is likely to happen to me.

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So, I decided to look into this further.

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What’s the real cause of this 
change in Russia

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and why it might involve me 
or my country?

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The Economist describes it in a 2017 
article as a state-sponsored

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turn to traditionalism during Vladimir 
Putin’s 3rd presidential term

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that has exposed these fault lines.

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Many Russians now embrace the liberal 
notion of individual rights,

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but others are moving in the 
opposite direction.

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As we can see this is a trend that 
shows up in many countries

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where their democracy is not 
completely affirmed

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and where authoritarian leadership want 
to prove the moral high ground

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of their traditional values in front 
of other countries,

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especially western democracies.

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Since the approval of the law,

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the cases of violence
are apparently decreasing.

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This happens because now it is much 
more difficult for a woman

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to report her husband.

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Policemen often blame the victims,

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they don’t help them at all 
or they ignore them.

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And even when they try to help them 
they are hindered by the law.

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If the woman is able to 
report the violence,

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then her husband will probably force her 
to pay the fine with her money.

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But if on the one hand the reported 
cases are decreasing,

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the emergency calls on the other 
are actually increasing,

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according to the data from the 
Anna violence crisis centre.

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So, this law is a way to hide 
the real situation.

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So, if I were a Russian woman experiencing
domestic violence,

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what would I need to do to be protected?

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I would need to call the police, 
probably more than once,

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hoping to be able to speak with someone 
who doesn’t blame me,

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to report the violence for 
the first time.

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After that, my husband would probably 
force me to pay the fine with my money,

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then I would need to call the 
police another time,

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hoping to be able to speak with someone 
who doesn’t attack me.

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Then I would need to report the 
violence a second time,

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maybe then my husband would be arrested 
and he’ll send me letters from prison

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telling that he wants to kill me 
as soon as he gets out.

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Hard to imagine what it takes to 
accomplish at least one of those steps.

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If it were me, would my life decisions 
be the same? I don’t think so.

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Would my friends support me, like they 
would normally do here and now?

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I don’t know, but I don’t think so.

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Another reason why a law like this 
can still exist in 2018

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is that unfortunately the progression 
of society is not always linear

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like the scientific progress.

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I often hear people saying 
"Come on! We are in 2018."

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but, what do they mean?

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They assume that since we are in 2018 
everyone is entitled to human rights,

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everybody should always be respected 
and not discriminated

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and society should be in 
constant progression.

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I wish it was actually like this.

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In science, if a new 
discovery is correct,

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it will be the basis for the 
next discovery.

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But society may always turn backwards;

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it happened in France and in other European
countries during the 19th century,

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when during the Restoration many 
progressive laws introduced

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in the Napoleonic era were suppressed,

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it's now happening in Russia and it could 
happen anywhere else, that's why I care.

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I also can't tolerate the fact that the 
victims are just represented with numbers,

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because like Anastasia Potemkina,

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an artist who created an 
amazing artwork project

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for all the victims of domestic 
violence said:

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"It's not that I'm trying to speak 
for them, definitely not,

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but the lack of their representation 
worries me."

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Today, I am here because this is not 
the world I believe in,

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the world my parents or my teachers 
taught me to believe in,

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the world that my favorite YouTuber

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or the founder of the Women Russian Crisis
Centre strive to create.

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Today I am here to speak up for Yana, 
for Veronica,

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for Svetlana, for Irina, for Margarita

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and for all the other women who can't.

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Thank you.