Polina Nemirovskaia (born 8 November 1995) is a Russian human rights advocate specializing in prisoners' rights.[1] She is a coordinator for Open Russia, a pro-democracy NGO in Moscow. Open Russia was designated as "undesirable" by the Russian government in 2017 and its offices raided by the police in February 2019 for hosting a videoconference with exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.[2]
Nemirovskaia was raised by her politically active grandparents, and became interested in politics at a young age. She wrote her first political article when she was 13, in response to the Russia–Ukraine gas disputes.[3] While still a teenager, she campaigned for Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Nemtsov was assassinated in 2015.[4] In 2016 she served as chief of staff for the opposition campaign of Maria Baronova.
