A mother of seven is the Kremlin’s newest enemy of the state

KYIV, Ukraine — High up on Vladimir Putin’s list of adversaries these days may be NATO, creeping Western imperialism and bloodthirsty Ukrainian “fascists” he insists are bombing their own civilians into submission.

But there’s also Svetlana Davydova, a loving mother of seven — and now, a suspected traitor of the Russian Federation.

Davydova has shot to infamy in recent days as the latest symbol of the Kremlin’s attempts to cover up its alleged military involvement in eastern Ukraine, which Western and Ukrainian officials say has bolstered pro-Russian separatists there.

The 36-year-old Davydova, from a provincial town in western Russia, was arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) in late January while on maternity leave nursing a 2-month-old child.

Her crime? She allegedly phoned the Ukrainian Embassy last April, warning that troops stationed at a nearby base — which she’d noticed was empty — may have been dispatched to Ukraine.

Davydova also allegedly told embassy officials she overheard a local soldier in a minibus discussing apparent plans to take part in a plain-clothes mission.

Her husband, Anatoly Gorlov, claimed shortly after her arrest it was “a purely emotional call,” stemming from a desire to prevent bloodshed in Ukraine.

“We are all people, and what’s happening is just a disgrace,” he told Radio Liberty last Friday. “She wasn’t following anything, wasn’t working for any intelligence agency, and had no access to secrets that she could sell.”

The Kremlin doesn’t think so, however. If convicted of treason, Davydova faces up to 20 years in prison.

Until Tuesday, authorities held her at Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, notorious as a popular incarceration spot for critics and dissenters jailed for allegedly political reasons. (The above tweet, by Russia’s Gazeta.ru news site, says “Svetlana Davydova has left SIZO,” referring to the name of the holding cell.)

She was released on bail Tuesday evening after a mass public outcry, including support from a range of public figures and celebrities, as well as some 50,000 signatures on two separate petitions.

But the charges haven’t been dropped.

Some critics say the case represents the Kremlin’s increasingly clumsy strategy of concealing its military presence in Ukraine. While Moscow has repeatedly denied sending regular Russian troops there to aid separatists, evidence to the contrary — particularly accounts from soldiers’ family members — has steadily mounted in recent months.

What’s more, the Kremlin has proven sensitive on the issue. Authorities have even waged smear campaigns against activists investigating such claims.

Nevertheless, some have attempted to challenge official logic.

Opposition lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov, a rare dissenting voice in parliament, pointed to the apparent discrepancy between the military’s denial of its presence in Ukraine and the charge that Davydova’s information on troop movements constitutes giving away state secrets.

“How can you prosecute a person for disclosing information which, according to the Ministry of Defense, is a fantasy [created by] Ukrainian journalists?” he told the Kommersant daily newspaper last week.

Other observers believe the Davydova case is a sign of Russia’s drift toward a harsher form of authoritarianism under Putin, who regularly blasts his critics as “fifth columnists” seeking to undermine the state.

Liya Akhedzhakova, a renowned Russian actress since the Soviet era, told a Moscow radio station Tuesday the Kremlin’s methods to clamp down on dissent reminds her of the worst years of Soviet repression.

“If right now, all the patriots, the entire ‘fifth column,’ and all the liberals … and everyone else doesn’t rise up, the consequences may be grave,” she said.