Olya Poliakova

Let me introduce to you my close friend Olya.

Olya is a wonderful and exceptional person. A few years ago she brought a Restaurant Day to Russia. Restaurant Day is a food carnival when anyone can open a restaurant. It is incredible fun. People open a restaurant for a day in their homes, host neighbors, friends or just random people passing by. Two years ago I took part in it as a waiter. I was terrible. Constantly messing up the orders and flirting with the clients. She wasn't too happy about that, but I had the best time ever. Here is a video from that day.

Olya is doing so much more. She is running an incubator for non-profit social projects. It is absolutely crazy stuff. She helps to 70 projects solve very special problems. Entertainment options for blind people, art exhibitions in bad neighborhoods, sustainable food and more. 70 social-oriented projects, let it sink for a second! She founded an educational project where different speakers give lectures in the parks of Saint Petersburg. Every time she tells me what she is up to I feel embarrassed and disappointed in myself as my biggest challenge so far was to find the best ramen place in Tel Aviv. (it is a new Hiro place btw) She is an incredible person. And she is in russian jail right now. So this is what happened. 

June 12 - It is Russia Day. The national holiday of the Russian Federation. Here is a video of Olya preparing to go out for celebrations. 

She put a question mark on her cheek as a silent protest against corruption in Russia. In one of my posts on FB, I wrote about a huge investigation by activists against the prime minister and former russian President Dmitri Medvedev. He was accused of being in possession of mansions yachts and vineyards worth billions of dollars. On June 12 in 160 of Russian cities, hundreds of thousands of people went on the streets in peaceful protest against corruption and outright demand to get answers on investigation accusations. Only in Moscow and Saint Petersburg about 1000 people were arrested. There was no violence or law violation. People literally were arrested for holding the national flag on National day. Here is photo of Olya being arrested

She smiles as always. After the arrest, she was busy explaining to police officers who arrested her how to cook a proper Canadian dim sum (actually it sounds disgusting, risky meal to promote). She sent us a lot of voice memos of how to take care of the cucumbers she is growing at home, how her cat likes to be petted, and what to do with all of her projects. It 's hard to understand those memos, cause she is always laughing. Literally ... Just listen to one of those

 I can't find the words to describe how she inspires me, how deeply I admire how she handle this situation. She is amazing. What is not amazing it is what happens inside russian police stations.

Man died after being raped with champagne bottle in police station

Political activist was strung up by his handcuffed wrists, had his head shoved down a toilet and been threatened with rape and death.

Russian police is a place for tortures, rapes, and murders. And this beautiful and gentle girl is facing it right now. It seems that she is fine. She tries to cheer us up and send us a lot of funny messages of how great her experience in jail so far and how it is better from many of her travelings. She is one of the bravest people I have a privilege to know. 

So now what? She had a fake hearing in the court that lasted less than a minute. All of her petitions were declined. She was arrested for 12 days. That is not a big issue. Usually how it works in Russia after the protests police start accusing random people with heavy charges and send innocent people to jail for years. The idea is to create an atmosphere of fear. Make people stay at home, make them afraid to protest. It happened too many times before. Olya's biggest dream is to end this corrupted system killing and torturing people, and you can help. The surrealistic reality is that the only thing russian corrupted government afraid of is what you guys in normal countries (well not sure about normal with all the Trump and Brexit things are going on) think. Your opinion affects foreign and domestic policies of your countries. And all russian corrupted officials have money, real estate and families living in your beautiful countries waiting for them to come for retirement from ripping Russia apart. So the only thing that hurts them is how much awareness all their crimes get in the western world, how much risk it put on their bright future in Spain Riviera or Miami beaches. So I am asking you for Olya, and other beautiful and innocent people held right now in awful russian jails. Share this post. Express you intolerance to corrupted Russian regime. Make your politicians know that their voters are against the corrupted disgusting system. Olya's dream of free and democratic Russia will be closer with each click on share button that you do. Olya says thank you