Wife of Mari Council Chairman Vladimir Kozlov Severely Beaten in Yoshkar-Ola

30.01.07

In the evening of January 25, Galina Kozlova, member of the board of the organization Mari Ushem (Mari Union) was attacked and severely beaten in Yoshkar-Ola. 

She was taken to the neurosurgical department of the Town Hospital of Yoshkar Ola with head and brain injuries and eyesight problems that resulted from nerve gas spray.

Galina Kozlova was returning home from work when a young man approached her unnoticed at the Kalinin Palace of Culture and sprayed nerve gas several times on her face. She could later describe the perpetrator as a well-dressed sporty young man of approximately 25 years. He was trying to grab her bag but she held on tight to it. He then applied brutal force, starting to drag her on the ground and eventually kick her head, while occasionally using the spray. She still would not give up the bag which contained the only copy-manuscript of a rural beginning Mari writer, as well as documents of Mari Ushem and Onchyko journal, together with personal documents.

She did not carry any larger sum of cash with her, nor had anything expensive on her. So it appears that the attack was not just ordinary robbery. Galina Kozlova is a mother of four, and the wife of Mari Council Chairman Vladimir Kozlov. Her husband was attacked in a similar way with a metal bar on February 4, 2005.

Mari Ushem is appealing to both the Interior Ministery of the Mari El Republic and the Russian Interior Ministery, as well as to the republican department of FSB, the Federal Service of Security, to find the perpetrator and bring him to justice. Mari Ushem is also asking the public to voice its opinion and not stay indifferent.

The Board of Mari Ushem
(12 signatures)

On the photo, taken from Valentin Kolumb museum, Galina Kozlova is second from the left.