Anastasia Kukhta was born on 20 January 1995 in a small village next to Minsk. She is trained as a hairdresser and her dream has always been to open a small hair salon. In May 2021, her dream came true, and she bought a small business. At the moment of detention, it was thriving, but her husband had to sell it to pay off the debts she took. Part of the debt is still uncovered.

Political views

Nastia has been underaged when she was first detained during the raid on a flat where Mikola Dziadok, Aliaksandr Frantskevich and other activists lived in 2010. They were later accused of a series of attacks and sentenced to 3-5 years of prison. Nastia stayed in touch with imprisoned comrades.

For some time, she was also part of the Really Free Market collective and frequently offered free haircuts at the events. Nastia was good at organising concerts and a few times she would invite hardcore bands from Russia to play in Minsk.

Detention and conviction

Anastasia was detained on 17 February 2022 and later was declared a suspect in a criminal case. She was accused of participation in protests, encouraging sanctions or actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus, and creation or participation in an extremist formation.

On 11 November 2022, she was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Family

Her parents are humble country people whose income is not enough for sustaining the cost of her support in prison. The mother died in May 2023 of lung cancer, Anastasia couldn’t attend the funeral.

Anastasia’s partner is struggling with finances as he needs to work more to provide for himself, Anastasia and their two pets. The cat has cost a lot in the last year as it was also diagnosed with some form of cancer. Anastasia misses them a lot.

Here is quote from Anastasia’s letter:

Our whole life is about risk. It is full of obstacles, difficulties, and defeats. And it's up to you to choose what to do and how to react. Will you let circumstances break you and make you miserable, or will you not give up and look for a million opportunities to get out of a difficult situation with honour and dignity? The decision is yours alone to make. It is your action or inaction that will determine our common future. After all, we are all links of one long chain.

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