Irina was arrested in October 2024 in connection with the "yard chats" case.
Irina Yakovleva is known to have been an active Orthodox believer, involved in church art and donating to churches and monasteries in Belarus. She worked as an accountant.
On October 29, 2024, the KGB recognized the courtyard coalition "Orden", which includes the courtyard chats "Zlye Kogtiki", "Sukharevo", "Senica2.0", "Solidarity", "Volnyya Vauki", "Navagrudskiya Partisans", "VILIYA", "Skromnye Matryoshka", and "Sosedi", as an "extremist formation".
According to the agency, those involved in these initiatives include Irina Yakovleva, Natalia Doronina, Diana Gavrilova, Ukrainian citizen Ivan Omelyan, Olga Nekhaychik, Konstantin Kirilenko, Yelizaveta Plitnik, Natalia Guzhova, Irina Smolyarova, Stanislav Botvin, and Natalia Lantukh. A few days later, mass arrests in this case took place across Belarus.
