Russia: Then and Now, Episode 7: Special Guest Mira Terada
Streaming Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 9am PT/Noon ET/16:00 GMT
Kevin Michelizzi and I are proud to host Mira Terada on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 9 am PT/ Noon ET / 16:00 GMT.
Mira Terada (born Oksana Vovk, March 21, 1988, Leningrad, USSR) is a Russian human rights activist and the head and official representative of the Foundation to Battle Injustice (Фонд борьбы с репрессиями).
Mira was born into the family of a landscaping engineer and an officer of the Interior Ministry. She worked in some of the largest financial institutions and IT organizations in Russia and abroad: Russian Standard Bank, American Express (USA), Woodforest Bank (USA), Luxoft Professional (Citigroup Investment and Deutsche Bank projects). She also took part in the implementation of an anti-plagiarism program for institutions of higher education in the Netherlands and the UK.
Mira lived in the United States from 2009 to 2011, then returned to Russia after receiving her degree in linguistics. She lived in the US again from 2013 to 2016. In 2014, she married an American citizen, whom she later divorced. She refused to obtain American citizenship and returned to Russia in 2016. In 2018, she was detained in Finland and extradited to the US to face charges of money laundering. She maintains that the charges were false and that she was forced to plead guilty in order to receive a shorter sentence. She subsequently served two years in a Federal prison in Alabama.
On July 15, 2021, she became the head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, and now she regularly coordinates and participates in human rights events and conferences, has made many appearances on Russian television and gives interviews to foreign media.
Mira is also the author of a biographical book, “Hostage of the Land of Liberty: 888 Days in an American Prison” (2022). The book is comprised of diary entries which Mira kept during her imprisonment and describes in detail the inhumane conditions and arbitrariness of the US penitentiary system.
Mira published a second book in 2022 titled “Freedom of Thought: How to Survive Under Pressure,” which is a manual about how to cope not only with the pressure of the prison system, but also with psychological, informational, and cyber pressure.
Be sure to tune in to “Russia: Then and Now” next Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 9 am PT/ Noon ET / 16:00 GMT, on Rumble, YouTube, VK or Facebook.
