Sofia Gominova wanted to be a lawyer from age 11.
Born after the fall of the Soviet Union, she grew up in a Russia blighted by organised crime and watched police dramas on TV, wanting to “fight evil like they did.”
Now, at 29, Gominova believes she is doing just that.
Among a new cadre of young lawyers outraged by suppression of dissent, she has joined OVD-Info, one of Russia’s biggest legal defence groups that supports thousands detained for opposing the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“I have always had a keen sense of justice,” Gominova told a Reuters reporter based in Poland.
“I realized that a lot of injustice is created by the hands of the system … that violates the rights of citizens, illegally arrests them, inflicts physical damage, and issues absurd decisions and decrees.”
As protests against last year’s invasion broke out, Gominova found herself waiting in freezing weather for hours in St. Petersburg to be let into court, then dashing from room to room as dozens of cases of arrested demonstrators were processed.
Arriving home exhausted, she would start work on appeals.
“Defending protesters in court is my version of protest,” said Gominova, who began representing anti-war activists in court almost immediately after the invasion.
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