On the morning of 17 June, at 10 am, Nikolai Nikolaevich Struchkov who works in the Ministry for State Security called me on my mobile phone (even though I had not given him my number), and invited me for a ‘chat’ at 11 a.m. in the Ministry of State Security. The reason for summoning me was not given. He said that the meeting would not last longer than two hours. As the children were on their summer holidays, and there was nobody to look after my daughter Anastasia (who is 10 years old), she and I set off to visit the Ministry of State Security (MGB). When I arrived at the Ministry of State Security, I was sent into an office. Struchkov came in shortly afterwards and the “chat” began. He had a whole list of questions, which he insisted I answer. These included details of my place of residence and work, my organisation’s activities, my foreign contacts, my NGO partners, my funders and donors, my colleagues.

This whole chat-interrogation lasted for two hours. If I began asking questions, I got the following answer: ‘Here, you do not ask questions. You are asked questions’. During this time Struchkov noted down his own interpretation of what I said but he wrote the explanation in my name. When asked why he was writing all this, he answered: ‘It’s necessary. You will sign it’. I said that I would not be signing anything. At 1 pm, after I had gone out to the toilet and come back, another man was there in Struchkov’s place. He introduced himself as Maxim Nikolaevich Tarantina. He talked to me quite rudely, and began asking me strange questions: Why was I born on the same day as Putin? Does this not affect my way of looking at the world? And other questions like this. I began ignoring these questions, and then another man entered. He initially would not introduce himself, but after I insisted, he introduced himself as Dmitrii Anatol’evich Rudnev. He started shouting at me and he accused me of cooperating with the Information and Security Service (Moldovan State Security). At this point my daughter began crying, and after a short time Rudnev stopped shouting. He left the room about 20 minutes later, and Tarantina continued his interrogation. I insisted that they let me go, as they did not have the right to detain me without reason. At 1.45 pm, I told them that my daughter needed to eat something, and that I was thirsty. They answered that they were not worried. They persisted in asking me to sign the explanation that Struchkov had written. I refused to sign it. At about 2 pm, Tarantina refused to let me go out to the toilet, but after 15 minutes and when my daughter also began asking, he finally let us go out after I insisted. When I came back from the toilet I refused to go into the interrogation room. My daughter and I stayed in the corridor. When they began pushing me forcefully into the interrogation room, I sat on the floor and resisted Tarantina’s physical pressure. My daughter began to cry. All this time Tarantina stayed with me and insisted that I go into the interrogation room and sign the explanation. He shouted at me and tried to take my notebook with telephone numbers. When Tarantina went away for a short time, I went over to the exit. The guard warned me that he would have to use force if we tried to leave. My daughter was with me all this time and she answered telephone calls, as I had been forbidden to use my mobile phone. There were constant threats that the mobile phone would be taken and smashed. I had to give the phone to my daughter and recite telephone numbers from memory, and she contacted people. All this time my daughter and I felt afraid and humiliated. When we were in the corridor, my daughter wanted to look out the window, but she was forbidden to do this. She was forbidden to lean on the windowsill, as the blinds could get damaged. When I was sitting on the floor, my daughter had to stand. We were refused water.

During the whole interrogation I was threatened that I would be detained until I signed the explanation. When my daughter heard these threats she cried and asked me to sign everything they asked me to. At about 4.15 pm, a man came into the building and called Tarantina into an office. They were there for about 5-7 minutes. After this, for about another 5 minutes, Tarantina demanded that I sign the explanation. After I categorically refused, he let me and my daughter go. He said that I had been detained because they wanted to discuss the threats of world terrorism with me.

The following events may not be connected with my detention, but they are suspicious. For three nights, from 23 to 26 June, I received anonymous telephone calls in the middle of the night. When I answered nobody spoke. I had to disconnect the telephone. On 27 June people I did not know came over to our fence. On 28 June, at 11 pm, two jars full of oil paint were thrown at the house. The front of the house was spoiled. Two obscene words were written in large letters on the metal gates. On 1 July, I bumped into Struchkov in the city and I asked him if he understood that his actions - and those of his colleagues - towards me and my daughter were unfair. He answered that they had all received an assignment and completed it, and they would summon me again if necessary. On the night of July 9 2004, another jar of liquid was thrown into our yard. A pungent smell of acetic acid and some kind of chemical alloy filled the yard, and there was a note attached that said ‘Oxana you’re a bitch, cure your syphilis’. There were several phone calls that night. Again, when I answered, nobody spoke. On the night of 23rd-24th July and 27th-28th July more jars of acetic acid were thrown into the yard. The authorities reacted reluctantly and rudely to a request that a policeman be sent to investigate what happened. Every event was simply recorded but nobody was charged. In the middle of October, in an off-the-record conversation, I reassured my colleague from Chisinau that the KGB had left me alone, and on that same night, a jar of chemicals flew into our yard.