Larisa TUPTSOKOVA
Image Credit: Larisa Tuptsokova
Larisa Tuptsokova – a Georgia-based, award-winning writer from the Republic of Adygea in the Russian Federation – was under investigation by the Russian authorities in relation to allegations of ‘organising the activity of an extremist community’ under Article 282.2(2) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which carries up to six years in prison. In a letter dated 9 October 2025 but not received at her parents’ home address in Adygea until 21 October, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation stated its intention to open a criminal case against Tuptsokova on 10 October, without sharing further information. Law enforcement officials subsequently searched her parents’ home and questioned her relatives. Rosfinmonitoring, the Russian Federation’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, included Tuptsokova in its list of ‘terrorists and extremists’ on 11 November 2025, in effect preventing her from returning to the Russian Federation, an example of transnational repression.
Tuptsokova, who has been living in Georgia for the past 14 years and also holds Georgian citizenship, believes the case against her stems from her activities and publications in support of Circassian language and culture, including through the online platform Circassian Media. Tuptsokova, who worked for the Circassian Cultural Centre in Tbilisi before the Russian Federation labelled it ‘extremist’ by in 2024, reported that a fake website had been set up under the Centre’s name in August 2025, with articles falsely attributed to her. Scores of activists and cultural figures from the North Caucasus Republics, Georgia, Türkiye and beyond have called for the case against Tuptsokova to be dropped, stressing it would set a dangerous precedent for those who worked with the Circassian Cultural Centre and highlighting Russian authorities’ increasing persecution of Circassian language and culture, including harassment of her supporters by the Kabardino-Balkarian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The case was ongoing at the end of the year.
Larisa Tuptsokova is a Georgia-based writer, poet, translator, journalist, philologist, and teacher of the Circassian language. She participated in the 2023 Indigenous and Minoritised Languages Video Poems Marathon of PEN International’s Translation and Linguistic Rights Committee.