California Woman Recalls Russian Captivity

Brittney Griner was not the only U.S. citizen freed from Russian prison this month.

Sarah Krivanek, a native of Fresno, California, was ordered to be deported to the U.S. on December 8, coincidentally the same day Griner was released from Russian captivity.

Krivanek was locked up in a Russian prison for most of this year. She claims she was assaulted by an inmate and left without contact with the outside world while behind bars.

“Nobody ever came,” she told ABC News.

Krivanek moved to Russia in 2017 to teach English. She ended up enjoying a successful career teaching at elite schools in Moscow. 

Following a broken wedding engagement, the former accountant briefly lived with roommates, one of whom was a man Krivanek said physically assaulted her. 

She was arrested and detained for attacking the man with a knife in December 2021. Krivanek claimed she acted in self-defense. 

At a February trial with no jury, the man whom Krivanek accused of beating her was called as a witness and withdrew his accusations, insisting he was the instigator.

Still, she was sentenced to one year and three months in a Russian penal colony, a verdict her attorney Svetlana Gorbacheva said was excessive given the circumstances. 

“It was not an imprisonable offense — it was an extremely unjust and cruel sentence,” Gorbacheva told People. “I feel so sorry for her on a human level.”

Krivanek said she believes she became “a sacrifice” for the Russians to use to send a warning to the U.S. about intervening in the conflict with Ukraine.

“I just fell into the system … at the wrong time,” she said. “Because it came on the heels of starting a war with Ukraine, they used this as leverage.”

Gorbacheva immediately appealed her sentence, and Krivanek was moved back to her holding cell to await a decision. 

There, she caught wind that she was in the same holding facility as Griner.

“I heard from the other girls there was another American woman being held in a nearby detention cell awaiting trial,” she recalled, “but I didn’t know that was Brittney Griner, and our paths never crossed.”

After her appeal was denied, Krivanek was moved to a penal colony on May 22.

The colony housed both male and female inmates in separate sections. Krivanek claimed the conditions were horrid, and that her status as a U.S. citizen often made her a target of abuse from prison officials and other inmates.

“Sex trafficking happened there, prostitution happened, rapes too,” Krivanek alleged. “As a punishment for something they were personally offended by, they arrange for you to be raped by other inmates, male or female, in the bathhouse. It’s planned. They lock you in with them and guard the door.”

“It’s like Sodom and Gomorrah in the camp,” she added. “What is sinful to a normal person in the outside world is the opposite for them. I was stupefied when I first got there. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what was happening. They just want to humiliate and crush you.”

Krivanek was discovered by a human rights group, Russia Behind Bars, which was there to help Griner.

Connecting the organization to Krivanek was Anita Martinez, whose friendship with Krivanek dates to 2008 in Fresno.

Martinez was the last person to talk with Krivanek, having watched her get arrested on camera by Russian authorities when the two women were having a FaceTime conversation.

Martinez immediately began trying to rescue her friend, contacting the White House, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and activist and media organizations. 

If it were not for the attention on Griner’s case, Martinez believes Krivanek most likely would have died in Russia.

In a statement to ABC News, the State Department said, “U.S. Embassy Moscow provided assistance on the case of U.S. citizen Sarah Krivanek for more than a year. We monitored the case throughout the process, including attending deportation hearings. We coordinated with Russian authorities to facilitate Ms. Krivanek’s safe return to the United States.”

Krivanek has disputed that claim, stating that she was put on a commercial flight by Russian officials and had to sign paperwork that she would be required to repay the U.S. government for the travel costs. 

During her imprisonment, Krivanek claimed, she did not hear from anyone from the U.S. government, except for a brief call she made on a prison phone to a U.S. official who said they were working on her case and would send someone to visit her.

That visit never occurred. Krivanek stated she only met with U.S. officials during her single deportation hearing.

Krivanek is now living with Martinez outside Fresno. She reportedly has PTSD and is working with a trauma specialist.

A since-closed GoFundMe account was created to help Krivanek pay back the U.S. government and assist Martinez in supporting her as she readjusts to unincarcerated life in the U.S.