Anastasia Burakova is a Russian lawyer and human-rights defender and the founder of Kovcheg (The Ark), a project supporting Russians who left the country after the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine: providing legal and immigration advice, emergency housing, and assistance in cases of transnational repression.

Before emigrating, she was part of the leadership of the Open Russia movement and coordinated the legal-aid project Open Russia Human Rights Department, representing opposition politicians, public figures and independent media in court — including in litigation brought by Yevgeny Prigozhin (the Kremlin-linked businessman who financed the Wagner mercenary group and Russia's 'troll factory'), Russia Today (Russia's state-controlled international broadcaster, widely regarded as a Kremlin propaganda outlet and now banned in the EU), and the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Her work centres on the erosion of legal guarantees in Russia and how the state uses legal instruments — 'foreign agent', 'undesirable' and 'extremist' designations, prosecutorial claims and presidential decrees — both to suppress dissent and to redistribute property.