Boris Stomakhin has spent more than a decade testing the limits of Russia’s hate-speech laws — and being punished for it. Twelve years after his writing first landed him in prison, he says life behind bars has taken its toll.
“The inability to relax for a single second; the constant anticipation of trouble or at the very least unpleasantness; and the frightening, oppressive internal tension triggered by this anticipation,” Stomakhin, 43, told RFE/RL’s Russian Service in written responses from prison in Russia’s Saratov region.
