PEOPLE Speaks Directly with Sarah Krivanek, American Woman Detained in Russia, as She Navigates Deportation - PEOPLE

For the archetypal clip since learning of Sarah Krivanek's shocking Russian imprisonment, PEOPLE has spoken to the American pistillate directly.

In a little telephone telephone connected her cellmates' mobile telephone Monday, Krivanek expresses amazement that she is being contacted from abroad. "How are you capable to telephone me? Wait, hold — ohio my God! That's amazing! I haven't spoken English successful truthful agelong I can't hardly retrieve however to bash it!" she laughs.

Krivanek has conscionable finished serving clip successful a Russian penal colony pursuing a home maltreatment incidental involving a Russian antheral successful Moscow past year, successful which she nicked her alleged abuser with a weapon retired of self-defense. He was not punished, but she was charged with "intention to inflict flimsy bodily harm" and "threatening to termination oregon bash grievous bodily harm." Even aft the antheral retracted his complaint, the charges remained.

Krivanek was called successful by her situation medication 10 days ago, successful mentation of her release, and told that her formation location from Moscow had been arranged and paid for by the State Penitentiary Service. They said she was owed to alert retired from Sheremetyevo Airport connected Nov. 8.

However, a fewer days earlier she was owed to permission the penal colony, she was told determination was not really a formation for her and that she would beryllium kept successful a holding compartment until her deportation could beryllium arranged. At the clip she was distraught, but speaking with us, she says she's conscionable blessed present to beryllium successful interaction with idiosyncratic "back home."

We archer her that PEOPLE recovered retired astir her incarceration portion reporting connected Brittney Griner. She replies: "Is that the gangly hoops subordinate who's been captured too? I didn't cognize thing astir her isolated from what the girls successful the compartment told me, that she'd been caught for drugs."

Dropping successful and retired of Russian and English successful the conversation, she goes on: "We've been victimized. It was an accidental for [the Russians] to laughter and say, 'Ha! We've captured an American!' And past person it each implicit their press."

We inquire Krivanek astir her harsh situation sentence. "The girls were saying, 'It was conscionable a scratch! He got 3 stitches and you got a twelvemonth and 3 months!'" she says. "And successful tribunal helium said it wasn't my fault, that helium was attacking maine and I was defending myself."

Until quality rights activists managed to found interaction with Krivanek successful September, she remained wholly isolated from friends and family. Her loved ones weren't adjacent definite if she was inactive alive. Her compartment telephone was confiscated astatine the clip of her apprehension and she was not capable to marque telephone calls from the situation but to her lawyer and, much recently, quality rights activists.

"It's been truthful hard to marque a telephone call. So hard. I was lone capable to instrumentality 1 defender to fto maine usage the telephone erstwhile I was successful the sick bay. I told him I wanted to telephone my lawyer to enactment immoderate wealth into my relationship for the situation shop," she says. "In short, I managed to get done to the embassy and told them wherever I was, but the transportation was truly atrocious and [then situation guards] realized who I was calling and the transportation dropped."

After speaking with the embassy connected that call, Krivanek says, "I was thinking, 'Oh God, did I negociate to really archer them wherever I'm at?' It took maine astir 5 minutes to person the receptionist that I was telling the information due to the fact that she conscionable didn't judge my communicative that I was an American calling from a Russian jail."

At this constituent successful PEOPLE's telephone telephone with Krivanek, she is asked by her cellmate to instrumentality the phone. The telephone was past chopped off.

Krivanek's enactment successful the penal colony was hard, leaving her astatine times "fearing for her life" due to the fact that of bullying from inmates and mistreatment from staff. It appears that these caput games included giving her mendacious anticipation that a formation location had been arranged.

She waited desperately for a sojourn from a U.S. diplomat aft her clandestine telephone call, but nary 1 came out. The State Department antecedently told PEOPLE that they were alert of her apprehension and were "monitoring the concern closely," and that requests to sojourn her successful situation were "consistently delayed oregon denied" by Russian authorities.

Krivanek has remained remarkably beardown passim her ordeal. At 1 point, she asked to walk a connection to her bully person Anita Martinez. The connection said that she's "looking guardant to sitting down to a celebratory Mexican meal" with Martinez upon her instrumentality to Fresno, California.

It is presently unclear however agelong Krivanek volition beryllium kept successful the detention cell, designed for overseas citizens awaiting deportation. She's been told that successful the adjacent 2 days she volition be a tribunal proceeding which volition "come to a determination astir her deportation." The U.S. Embassy volition instantly beryllium notified.

After Krivanek's archetypal home maltreatment apprehension past year, she was released connected bail and sought proposal astatine the U.S. Embassy successful Moscow. On Dec. 15 an American diplomat escorted her to Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport to alert home. Her physics tickets were paid for by the embassy, but she was arrested by Russian constabulary conscionable earlier boarding the plane, thwarting her flight plan.

A U.S. State Department authoritative antecedently told PEOPLE that astatine the clip they were unaware Krivanek was retired connected bail, oregon that she had signed a written connection saying she would not permission the country.

Krivanek's loved ones are not successful a presumption to wage the prohibitively precocious outgo of a formation from Moscow to Washington, and Krivanek herself does not person the means to signifier her ain formation home. Martinez has launched a GoFundMe run to fundraise for her flights, but inactive holds retired anticipation that the State Department volition present measurement successful and assistance with the costs.

"Hopefully they volition yet [get disconnected their a----] and spell spot her and bash thing to assistance her!" she tells PEOPLE.

The State Department did not instantly instrumentality PEOPLE's petition for remark Monday astir organizing flights location for Krivanek.

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