In August, activists from Alternativa, a movement that fights modern slavery in Russia, reported that several people had been freed from a farm in the village of Podkolodnovka in the Voronezh region. According to the former workers, they were kept on the premises, forced to work for food, and never received the wages they had been promised.
The volunteers say distress messages came from several people at once: Belarusian citizens Yury, Sergey and Alyona, as well as Oleg, a Russian from the Smolensk region. Activists arrived at the address with police but were initially unable to enter the property. Even so, the applicants were released the same day and soon gave their first accounts.
The freed workers said they had been promised field work for 2,000 rubles a day, along with food and accommodation, but in reality worked only for food, ate expired products and were subjected to beatings. Sergey said workers were punished for disobedience, while those who tried to flee were severely beaten.
The former workers identify Nadezhda Uryvskaya as the person in charge at the farm. According to them, she was assisted by two men who monitored the workers and carried out punishments. The day after the first operation, volunteers removed another worker, Yelena Sysoyeva, whom relatives had been searching for.
The freed workers claim that more than 100 people may have been on the farm. After the reports were published, the case drew wide attention and security agencies began an inspection. At the same time, local media, citing a law enforcement source, said there was allegedly no confirmation of exploitation.
In a report by Vesti Voronezh, the farm owners and some workers denied coercion. One interviewee said wages are paid only at the end of the season and that documents can be retrieved on request. During the filming, however, several people agreed to leave with police, and one worker told journalists that “no one here will tell you the truth.”