Natalia Pelevine

Natalia Pelevine (Russian: Наталья Пелевина/Пелевайн) (born on 2 November 1976) is a British-Russian playwright, political activist and blogger.

Natalia Pelevine
Наталья Пелевина
Personal details
Born	(1976-11-02) 2 November 1976 (age 48) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Political party	RPR-PARNAS
Other political affiliations	5th of December Party (2012–2015)

Early years

Natalia Pelevine was born in Moscow in 1976.^[1][2] She moved to England as a child and attended a private school, Southbank International.^{[citation needed]} She then received BA in Art History from a London University.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Theatre

In 2004, Pelevine set up a theatre production company, First Act Productions, which is based in London.^[3] She wrote In Your Hands, a play based on the events of the Moscow theater hostage crisis.^[4][5] It was first staged in October 2006 in North London at the New End Theatre.^[6] The Russian version of In Your Hands, directed by Skanderbek Tulparov, had its premiere at the Russian Dramatic Theatre in Makhachkala, Dagestan, in April 2008 and was banned^[7] after its opening night performance by the President of Dagestan, Mukhu Aliyev, who attended the performance.^[8] Reuters covered the event that was picked up by many major global media outlets.^[9][10]

Her play I Plead Guilty had its New York premiere in May 2011 at Gene Frankel theatre.^{[citation needed]}

Political

Pelevine was one of the people behind the independent research into the Moscow theatre siege. A member of NGO Nord Ost, she remains in close contact with Nord Ost and Beslan victims and their families. Pelevine consulted on a number of documentary films about the Moscow theatre siege.^[11][12]

Pelevine has appeared as a political commentator on Al Jazeera, RTVi, PressTV, the BBC and other TV and radio channels.^[13] She was also involved with the Strategy-31 Abroad organization, which rallied for the article 31 of the Russian Constitution and for freedom and democracy in Russia, and opposes the current government.^[14][15] She was the organizer of the New York Strategy 31 pickets, on 31 August and 31 October 2010.^[16] She also organized an Oleg Kashin picket in November 2010 and a demonstration in support of Mikhail Khodorkovsky on 12 December 2010, during which she mentioned setting up a new movement.^[17] In early 2011, the Democratic Russia Committee was founded by Pelevine and supporters.

Formerly the head of the December 5 Party, Pelevine joined RPR-PARNAS in March 2015.^[18]

In 2012 Pelevine worked with Alexei Navalny on uncovering a major case of corruption that involved deputy prime-minister Igor Shuvalov.^[19]

In the summer of 2012 Pelevine co-founded the 5th of December Party.^[20]

In 2015 the Investigative Committee initiated prosecution of Pelevine in the Bolotnaya case. Although the case never went to court, Pelevine was under a travel ban for over three years, unable to leave Moscow.^[21]

Pelevine is a Council member of the Free Russia Forum.^[22]

On the 8th of September of 2023 Russia’s Ministry of Justice declared Pelevine a foreign agent and she joined the list of other opposition politicians, artists and journalists.^[23]

In November of 2023 Pelevine was elected as a Regional secretary of the Eastern Europe-Central Asia division of the World Liberty Congress.^[24]

A criminal investigation into Pelevine was opened by the Investigative Committee of Russia.^[25]