Campaign outcomes in Seda Suleimanova’s support surpasses organizers’ expectations

Activists have collected twice as many signatures as they had expected to the appeal addressed to the administration of Russian President in connection with the disappearance of Chechen native Seda Suleimanova. The campaign covered more than 20 Russian cities and found a response, including among residents of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kuban (Krasnodar Territory).

Volunteers have collected twice as many signatures as expected.

The signature collection campaign has exceeded the organizers’ initial expectations, Elena Patyaeva told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "We thought it would be good to collect signatures in two cities, maybe some other cities would join us. But in the end, we have an impressive list of cities – maybe not all of them have many signatures, but still they had some participation – plus several foreign cities; and we’ve just collected a lot in Moscow and Saint Petersburg," she said.

According to Elena, activists had assumed "that it would be good for us to collect 2000 physical signatures." "In the end, we’ve gathered over 4000 physical signatures ... And in terms of media coverage – we managed to involve media outlets in coverage ... When we were collecting signatures and distributing leaflets, media outlets with fairly large audiences wrote about this action. So, I treat the work we’ve done as very efficient," Ms Patyaeva has summed up.

People from different cities and countries started writing to us.

One of the campaigners, Varvara by name, has assessed the campaign as "extremely successful." "Initially, we only had a couple of stationary points in Moscow and Saint Petersburg in our plans. And sometimes, if possible, our collectors would go out onto streets. But in the end, people from different cities and countries started writing to us asking to let them join the campaign. Thus, our campaign flew across the country, and at the moment signatures are being collected in 24 cities of Russia, and in eight countries," Varvara told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She has added that people with different views left their signatures. "Everyone signed (the appeal), not only people with oppositional views, not only people who are privy to the problem. Some literally learn from our volunteers that there are "honour killings," that girls are still forced to cover their heads, that they are forced into marriages. For many people in Central Russia and in northern regions, this is something that has become a thing of the past. People literally didn’t know that this is still happening," she has stated.

People are ready to respond and sign very willingly.

According to Varvara’s assessment, people responded to the appeal easily. "For many, it does not look political or oppositional. It was literally some help for a person who is in trouble. Even those who know nothing about this story or about the difficult situation in Northern Caucasus were ready to respond and signed very willingly," Varvara has concluded.

Another organizer of signature collection, Vladislav, has also treated the campaign as "quite successful." Among the reasons for the success, he has specified the involvement of several organizations in the campaign, including the “Rassvet” (Dawn) Party and the Libertarian Party, who attracted volunteers, helped with the website design and creating a bot for processing requests.

In their everyday life, they can't stand each other, but they agree that abducting people is bad.

"Such human rights initiatives help unite people even with polar views. But here they agree that kidnapping people is bad, and justifying it with some traditions or customs is simply unacceptable; and the fact that law enforcement bodies ignore it is just a complete horror. And this is actually a little bit of disjointed work. But still, it’s the work that moves us all in the right direction,” Vladislav told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

According to his story, in Arbat, a pedestrian street in Moscow, volunteers managed to collect about 100 signatures per day. Moreover, the bulk of the signatures were collected in Russia, while some 5-7% of signatures were gathered abroad.

Authorities did not interfere with signature collection

Speaking about authorities’ attitude to the campaign, Varvara has noted that volunteers had no problems with authorities when collecting signatures. "Only once security guards of the shopping centre and policemen asked collectors what was going on, but there were no consequences either," she said.

Vladislav has also confirmed that there was no opposition to signature collection.

Residents of North-Caucasian and Southern Federal Districts (NCFD and SFD) signed the appeal.

There were some from Makhachkala and Ingushetia, that is, people from Northern Caucasus who have signed the appeal.

There were NCFD residents among the signatories, said Elena Patyaeva. "We had no collectors there [in the NCFD], because where would we find collectors who would go there and collect these signatures? <...> But at the beginning I asked everyone: write your address according to your registration – and there were people from Makhachkala, there were some from Ingushetia, that is, people from Northern Caucasus have also signed. Well, most likely, there were some after that too, we just didn't ask them to indicate their registration addresses after that," she has explained.

According to Vladislav, the signature collection was conducted in Sochi and Krasnodar, where several dozen signatures were collected.

They said that it was their tradition to kill girls who dated people of other nationalities

Vladislav gave an example of the opposite reaction. "One of our volunteers approached, as he said, stylish-looking Caucasians. And they said that it was their tradition to kill girls who dated people of other nationalities, and they [Seda's possible killers] had done everything right," Vladislav said.

Varvara has also mentioned cases of refusals to sign. According to her story, there were "unpleasant dialogues" in Moscow about "why we were interfering with other people's traditions." "Such ideologies demoralize volunteers the most. And we had to talk about it and teach them to cope, to ignore it, to put it simply," she said.

According to her story, signatures were collected in Sochi and Novorossiysk. "In the [North-Caucasian] republics themselves, we won’t launch the campaign, but people from there were in other cities and they signed, especially girls. I think that some of them are personally close to this problem; and here they can show their will and support Seda completely safely. And in the republics themselves, in conditional Chechnya or Dagestan, we would be prohibited to collect signatures, even if someone volunteered. The risks are too great. Although these people can still leave a signature online," she said. Varvara has confirmed that a smaller part of signatures were collected abroad, since the campaigners were trying to collect signatures from Russian citizens.

Sending notification to the UN inspired activists

Multilateral pressure on the system is good

Elena Patyaeva has called the notification to the UN about Seda Suleimanova's disappearance "a cool step." "I think it's important, regardless of what Russia's reaction will be to the decision that the UN makes, because it's at least a step toward international publicity; and there will be increased pressure. And although, as human rights defenders told me, no one has tried to appeal there concerning Russia on such a case; and, therefore, this is an untested mechanism, but some chance is better than none," she said.

Vladislav has similarly treated the decision to submit a notification to the UN. "The fact that Seda's case was sent to the UN has a positive effect on our campaign, among other things. Such very multilateral pressure on the system is good," he has noted.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on May 11, 2025 at 10:57 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.