“Despite war and repression, there are Russians who are still willing to risk everything for justice and a better life. In “Lyuba’s Hope,” Marianna Yarovskaya and Paul Gregory tell the gripping story of Lyubov Sobol, a woman who fought alongside the late Alexeei
Navalny to hold Russia’s corrupt leaders to account. The film cuts between scenes showing Lyuba’s personal efforts and the history of recent Russian civil resistance on the eve of Putin’s full scale invasion of Ukraine. In the process, it offers not just a cross section of Russian life but also the qualities that are needed if Putin is to face resistance from where it may matter the most, from his own people.”
David Satter,
Journalist and historian, author of The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep:
Russia’s Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin.
“At a time when the U.S. government is moving closer to Vladmir Putin’s autocratic
Russia, it’s important to remind the world just how repressive is his regime. Lyuba’s Hope, the riveting new documentary by Marianna Yarovskaya and Paul Gregory, dramatically illustrates the cost of dissent in today’s Russia. The film painfully documents the price of resistance, yet, at the same time, highlights the courage of those struggling to fight corruption and repression. The film artfully weaves Lyubov Sobol’s personal story with recent historical events to create a revealing and moving portrait of a brave woman fighting for a more democratic and just society.”
Mark Jonathan Harris,
Emeritus Distinguished Professor
School of Cinematic Arts
University of Southern California
Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker
“The struggle against Putin is like climbing Everest, the air is sucked out the space, the battle feels impossible, it is one woman vs. the mountain — the state. It’s a big one like Everest. The state has all of the resources, money, the police, the laws, the structure to make the protest and the protesters feel powerless. She is amazing. She is really a one woman army. The thousands of people lined up for the funeral at the end gave me hope, knowing that the police could arrest them — they still showed up. She leaves us at the end, alone at the airport going on yet another journey. … At the end I was fearing for her life.”
Mitchell W. Block (1950-2024)
Academy Award-nominated producer
“I have followed the film since its inception and have always been enthusiastic to support the project to the extent of appearing in the film myself (which I almost never do). The film tells a story of Lyubov (“Lyuba”) Sobol who became employee #1 at Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF). Lyuba just graduated with summa cum laude from the top law school in Russia (Law Department of the Moscow State University) and made a conscious choice to join Navalny’s fight against corruption – rather than pursuing a career in an international law firm or becoming a corporate lawyer. Unfortunately, Alexei has paid for the Anto-Corruption Foundation’s cause with his life. The film also shows how committed Lyuba has been to this cause and how hard this fight was. This film is important for many reasons. It shows that women can and should become the driving force in Russia’s male-dominated politics. It also proves that Russian opposition can and should promote new leaders. Many critics of Alexei Navalny have often accused him of his alleged focus on himself. Lyuba’s story is an important example where Alexei and other members of his team were supportive of Lyuba’s growth as an independent political leader who became the star of 2019 Moscow City Parliament election campaign. It also shows the difficult personal and family choices that a young anti-Putin female politician has to make and the costs these choices involve. For a better understanding of Russia’s and Europe’s future, Lyuba’s story deserves to be told and heard by as many people around the world as possible.”
Sergei Guriev,
Dean and Professor of Economics
London Business School
https://www.london.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty-profiles/s/sergei-guriev
“Lyubov Sobol is one of the heroes of Putin’s Russia. As an accomplished Moscow lawyer, she started working with Alexey Navalny in 2011 and she became one of his closest collaborators. She carried out serious investigations of the corruption of the Putin regime and she became a Youtube star publicizing her investigations. As repression became ever worse in Russia under Putin, Lyubov was arrested time and again and her family targeted, as Marianna Yarovskaya and Paul Gregory’s film Lyuba’s Hope illustrates so well. In August 2021, she found herself forced to flee from Russia all of a sudden. Otherwise, she would have faced a more serious arrest. She escaped via Turkey to Estonia and now to Washington. Lyubov Sobol is one of the heroes of our time standing up for freedom, democracy and the rule of law.
Anders Aslund,
Author of Russia’s Crony Capitalism