Maria Bontsler

Founder and former head of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of the Kaliningrad Region. Since 2007, she has been practicing as a lawyer. She has defended participants in protest actions, including anti-war ones. She was also the lawyer for Kaliningrad resident Igor Baryshnikov, who was convicted in a criminal case on charges of spreading “fakes” about the Russian Armed Forces due to his posts about the war in Ukraine.

On May 28, 2025, a search was conducted at her home, after which Bontsler was detained in a case opened under the article on confidential cooperation with a foreign state, international, or international or foreign organization.

On the same day, law enforcement officers also visited two other Kaliningrad lawyers, Roman Morozov and Ekaterina Selizarova, who had also defended Baryshnikov.

The Investigative Committee claims that in 2024 Bontsler passed information about law enforcement officers in the Kaliningrad region — obtained in the course of her legal work — to the intelligence services of an “unfriendly state.” The agency also claims that the other lawyers visited by security forces were “aware of the suspect’s criminal activities.”

On May 29, 2025, Bontsler was taken into custody.

During a court hearing to appeal the initiation of the case, Bontsler stated that an FSB officer, Kirill Takhtov, had an interest in having her “arrested and imprisoned.” She alleged that he used violence against her and, according to her, had previously used violence against detainees on multiple occasions.

On September 25, 2025, the Kaliningrad Region Bar Association suspended Bontsler's lawyer status.

In March 2026, the investigation reclassified the charges against Bontsler as high treason.

You can read more about politically persecuted people in the Telegram channel OVD-Info LIVE and our database of politically motivated criminal prosecutions.